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Title: Engaging India: Us Strategic Relations With the World's Largest Democracy by Gary K. Bertsch, Seema Gahlaut, Anupam Srivastava ISBN: 0-415-92283-6 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: July, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.95

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Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)

Rating: 3
Summary: Not enough shades of grey covered
Comment: The book is overly optimistic but, nevertheless, remains an informative reference source.

The book should have spent more time on explaining the strategic interplay between India, Russia, China and the US. By doing so, the book would have better captured the geopolitical complexities and realpolitik.

Had the book achieved this, the reader would have rightly concluded that India is not going to fall into the trap of going with one or either side. Moreover the book would have concluded that India's strategic partnership with Russia and China's strategic partnership with Russia effectively have created a triangular strategic relationship, created with the objective of mitigating 4th party external interference, both regionally and globally.

Had the book also mentioned that India's tech-based economic relationship with the US ties the world's two largest democracies economies together, the reader would have concluded the only CERTAIN conclusion: "The days of the the superpower, acting without recourse to international law, are effectively over. The 21st century will be one of multipolarity and economic interdependence. Unilateral and illegal attacks on sovereignty e.g. Serbia, will soon be a thing of the past."

The book will sit well on the bookshelves of interested parties, but it must be read with a dose of skepticism. The picture it paints is slightly rose-tinted.

Rating: 1
Summary: A piece of fanciful fiction
Comment: This book's title sounds mighty fine, but the content is not a true representation of the geopolitical facts.

The book fails to recognise that a US friendship with India is not a realistic proposition, with Pakistan as the USA's real strategic partner.

The book should have concluded that, until the Indian terrorist-state does justice to the legitmate claims for self-determination of the oppressed Kashmiris, there can be no real friendship between the USA and India.

The book also failed to highlight that Pakistan has a strict Islamic code and also has a nuclear capability, and if pushed, will not hesitate to use it on India and on any so-called superpower that deems it appropriate to become India's partner.

Rating: 5
Summary: Engaging India: A very "engaging" collection
Comment: Engaging India is an apt name for a collection of foreignpolicy essays about the world's two largest democracies since thebook, as a whole, delivers successfully on all four interpretations of its title.

Its first and most obvious interpretation was employed by the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, when she presented the newly published book to the Indian External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh on his recent visit to the US on 28 September, 1999 and commented "Shall we ... [re-engage India in bilateral talks]?" Even before the embers from Pokharan II had died down, the Indian administration had shown its willingness to bring US to the diplomatic table. Not much has been accomplished, however, given the disparate views the two nations have about their strategic interests. The US feels that the members of the G5-and no other nation-have a quasi-birthright to develop a nuclear armament. India vociferously disagrees, citing China and Pakistan as perceived threats and believes that non-proliferation should either be across the board, or not at all. A large segment of the Indian population, especially the BJP government that conducted the tests, feels that India's docile past has weakened its strategic and security interests. However, both India and the US agree upon the imperative need to institutionalize control measures that would ensure peace and harmony in western Asia and avoid an arms race with Pakistan-an eventuality that can seriously disrupt the thin balance of power in that area and empower the Islamic fundamentalists. Several essays in this collection are devoted to threshing out the dynamics that govern these issues.

The essays discuss in great detail the primary reasons why the US finds India so "engaging" or appealing-its developing defense arsenal. Indo-US relations have been traced from the Sino-Indian conflict in the sixties, through the Cold War era, to the present day. Besides Indo-US strategic concerns, the book also explores the need and prospects for Indo-US cooperation that is needed to develop and control technology for both peaceful and defense purposes. Although the imperatives dictating nuclear safety, energy, and space are discussed in substantial detail, the primary focus of the essays are the weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, biological and toxic), their mode of deployment, and the main issues surrounding non-proliferation export control measures like the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). A separate section addressing the regional issues surrounding Indian, Chinese, Pakistani, and Russian strategic viewpoints adds to the overall perspective.

The title's third interpretation, as in when you "engage" or take on someone you realize that nothing more than an introductory hand-shake has been accomplished has been highlighted successfully in these essays. Yes, both India and US seem to have begun a new era of negotiations-but that's all it is-just a beginning. Given their diplomatic past, there is no saying what the outcome would be; unless both parties are equally prudent, diplomatically amenable, and less dictatorial about the terms and conditions of an alliance, this new "era" can easily die an early death.

The title's fourth interpretation-as in an "engagement" prior to a marriage-is discussed in detail in the earlier sections of the book. A closer look at the US and India reveals them as not unlike a human couple. Like their human counterparts, they have many things in common-both are powerful, democratic, practice freedom of speech, participate in relatively free international trade, and boast a free market. Their differences are equally stark-neither will compromise when it comes to strategically protecting its boundaries from any perceived threats, even when the other finds its reasoning far-fetched. For instance, the CTBT died an early death because the US could not bring itself to ratify it; similarly, India consistently maintains that when it comes to weaponization and non-proliferation, "what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." Their psychological similarity has often been dubbed the "mirror-image" effect in the sense that the US finds negotiating with India so difficult because India is its mirror-image on the negotiating table. Their similar strategic goals redoubles the need for healthy diplomatic ties between them since diplomacy can be reasonably thought of as the primary vehicle with which two countries communicate, or in this case, arbitrate away their differences. Let's just hope that this "engagement" ends in holy matrimony and not a premature divorce.

All in all, I found the essays in this collection to be lucid and informative; they were all written in a captivating style that assumed little or no background, yet the essays managed to take the reader in to the depths of their ideas without getting too bogged down by technical jargon. The book provides an excellent summarization of the main issues surrounding Indo-US Strategic Relations although an essay that covered their industrial and economic aspects could have made it stronger, especially since a sound strategic alliance is often considered a necessary prelude to a sound economic relationship. For instance, India's booming software industry and the way its huge middle-class of 250 million is being tapped by the American high-tech industries not just as a cheap labor pool but also as a massive consumer group are certainly some other reasons that determine Indo-US relations. An essay that examined how India's trade and other economic interactions with the US has changed over the years and how it influences its current relation would have been quite welcome. I hope their subsequent volumes will elaborate further on the ideas mentioned since a book comprising mere 280 pages cannot be expected to do justice to the complexities inherent in a topic as vast as this. A good starting book for a beginner that also delves deep and makes viable recommendations to the policy makers of both the countries.