ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the study of contemporary Indian foreign policy and the concepts, methods and theories used by the disciplines of foreign policy analysis and international relations (IR) closer together. It provides a case for studying India’s international history to develop a more sophisticated understanding of India’s contemporary foreign relations. The book shows how the contextualization of circumstances helps us understand the evolution of Indian foreign policy. It explains the specificities of the Indian academic system and think tank setting and the way it shaped the country’s IR discipline. The book argues that the marginalization of IR in Indian foreign policy is, to a large extent, due to the dependence of researchers on state support and mainstream thinking. It focuses on how the integration of historical perspectives with IR can help illuminate how India emerged as an international actor in multilateral arenas.
