Carina van de Wetering

Trust in international relations – A useful tool?

The concept of trust is easily viewed as elusive, fleeting, and one that is hard to pinpoint empirically. Yet at times the events in world politics take rapid turns that highlight the importance of...

Analyzing Policy Discourse

This chapter sets out the theoretical approach, namely critical constructivism grounded in poststructuralism, and the most important concepts, including policy discourses, the notion of security, the concepts of Self and Other, and articulation and interpellation.

India, the Underappreciated: The Clinton Administration

This chapter highlights that there has been a continuous interest in India since the second Clinton administration. However, there is often a focus on a specific event, such as the nuclear test in 1998, or President Clinton as an explanatory variable, instead of changing discourses underlying these policy changes.

India as a Strategic Partner: The Bush Administration

This chapter discusses that the relationship became more intense during the Bush Jr. administration. There is usually a focus on the great interest of Bush and his advisers, the Vulcans, in India because Bush was impressed by India’s genuine democratic values and his advisers regarded India as a potential balancer to China.

India Has Already Risen: The Obama Administration

In this chapter, I introduce the topic by showing that the heightened interest continued during the Obama administration. Surprisingly, one of the main questions which arose was whether the first Obama administration’s interest in India was comparable to the Bush administration’s interest. There seemed to be a slowdown in US-India relations during the Obama administration. Nevertheless, the question remains unchallenged that there have been large changes in US foreign policy toward India.

Developing US Relations with India: 1945–1993

In this chapter, I introduce the topic by showing that US-India relations could be characterized as estranged and were marked by dramatic oscillations. Following this discussion, I will refer to the construction of security issues/problems related to India and security policies toward India within the discourse from Roosevelt through Bush Sr. during five periods. As the chapter will demonstrate, the US security policies toward India were often tied to the US containment policy—they were constructed as more important—which limited other policy options toward India within the discourse.