De-hyphenation, strategic autonomy can tackle state, non-state players: Ram Madhav's book

New Delhi, Jul 13 (PTI) In the evolving new world order, India needs to uphold the twin principles of de-hyphenation and strategic autonomy to tackle multiple state and non-state players, says politician Ram Madhav in his new book.

In "The New World: 21st-Century Global Order and India", Madhav explores the rise and fall of great powers and the international orders they create.

He also envisions India's emerging role in the evolving balance of power within the global system.

Madhav, who served as national general secretary of the BJP from 2014 to 2020 and as party in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir elections in 2024, says that foreign policy must be pragmatic and blended with national interests.

"This blending can be seen in the Narendra Modi government's adoption of more realistic principles like de-hyphenation and strategic autonomy as its new foreign policy doctrine," he writes in the book, published by Rupa.

"What India did in the name of de-hyphenation was to refuse to look at its relationship with a given country from the prism of a third country," he adds.

Madhav, currently president of New Delhi-based think tank India Foundation, also says that beyond de-hyphenation, India developed the doctrine of strategic autonomy.

"Although it sounds similar to the old doctrine of non-alignment, it is markedly different in the sense that while non-alignment was India’s way of avoiding Cold War politics, strategic autonomy indicates its proactive diplomacy based on its national interests," he writes.

According to him, strategic autonomy "represents India's resolute refusal to sacrifice its national interests in the name of any ideology, or for the sake of maintaining diplomatic relations with any country".

Madhav argues that in the evolving new world order, "India needs to uphold the twin principles of de-hyphenation and strategic autonomy to tackle multiple state and non-state players, secure its objectives of building a developed Bharat, and play a proactive role in shaping the new world." Generally, foreign policy is understood to rest on two essential pillars - economic relations and national security, he says, adding the Modi government added three more pillars to it -- dignity, greater engagement, and cultural ties. PTI ZMN MG MG