ABSTRACT
Neoclassical realism purports to rectify the indeterminacy problem in structural realism by opening up the state and decision-making as an analytical category. Randall Schweller has proposed a neoclassical Realist explanation for underbalancing, using several variables addressing social and elite cohesion and consensus. In this chapter, I examine an important case of underbalancing—India’s response to China in the 1950s—using these variables. I argue that these variables provide little support to the neoclassical realist of underbalancing. Moreover, because the explanation for Indian behaviour may have had more to do with Jawaharlal Nehru’s personal ideological viewpoint regarding China, it is possible that the neoclassical realist venture has a fundamental problem because it has not so far given sufficient importance to the role of personality in state behaviour.
