SASNET Lecture with Jagannath Panda: "Power Plays in a Multipolar World: Mapping India’s Global Game"

Over the past decade, geopolitical transitions have gathered momentum across the world. China’s rise, the growing competition between the US and China, the Ukraine war and Gaza conflict, have created greater uncertainty and raised questions about the future world order. Against this background, India stands as a strong proponent of global peace, and support multipolarism within the strides of multipolarity. India’s geopolitical interests are focused on strengthening its strategic autonomy and working towards more equitable global governance. It seeks to reject great power rivalry and foster greater inclusive cooperation to shape a world order that reflects today’s diversity.

Advocating for a more equitable multipolar world, India positions itself as a strategic bridge between major powers. Indian foreign policy is often viewed through the prism of non-alignment to multi-alignment, and now to pointed alignment. It is driven by realpolitik wherein New Delhi projects itself as a neutral centrepiece within the China-West divide, while at the same time building issue-based partnerships that help promote its own interests. This is evident, for instance, in India’s active participation in the BRICS forum, which is quickly gaining greater prominence as a body working to promote interests of the Global South; alongside its development of security ties with the US, as well as other Western states. However, balancing relationships with BRICS countries like Russia and China against its U.S. alignment presents challenges. Keeping this in view, how is India aims to navigate the major power politics in times to come? What is India’s approach towards global south that involves a competing space with China? How is India poised to navigate between multipolarism and multipolarity? This lecture will address some of these critical questions.

About the Lecturer

Prof. Jagannath Panda is the Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden. Dr. Panda is also a Professor at the Department of Regional and Global Studies at the University of Warsaw; and a Senior Fellow at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands. As a senior expert on China, East Asia, and Indo-Pacific affairs, Prof. Panda has testified to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission at the US Congress on ‘China and South Asia’. He is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia. 

This event is a collaboration between SASNET and the Lund Association of Foreign Affairs (UPF).