Pradeep Taneja

Balancing Democracy and Globalisation: The Role of the State in Poverty Alleviation in India

Contemporary globalisation is viewed both as offering immense opportunities and posing a fundamental threat to the nation-state and democratic governance. To the proponents of globalisation, integration into the world economy through liberalisation of foreign trade and capital flows, combined with deregulation of the national economy, promises greater economic efficiency, higher consumption levels and generally improved living standards. For them, state intervention in the economy aimed at restricting the free play of market forces is dysfunctional, resulting in lower social and economic benefits for the population at large. Within this optimistic perspective, globalisation is thought likely to ‘flatten’ economic differences between nations and lead to a ‘borderless world’, where the barriers to flows of capital, technology, and information will be minimised if not totally removed.

Democracy, Governance and Civil Society: Rethinking the Study of Contemporary India

In 2007 India celebrated its sixtieth year of independence. As this multicultural state of a billion plus citizens picks up economic pace at the start of the twenty-first century, international sce...

China's Search for Energy Security and EU-China Relations

This chapter focuses on China’s search for energy security, especially in the oil and gas sector, and on the impact of this search on China’s relations with the European Union (EU). It places the Chinese energy security strategy within the context of the country’s economic reform program by examining the political dynamics behind developments in the energy sector. The study outlines some key initiatives China has taken to ensure regular and cost-effective oil and gas supplies. It surveys China’s energy security policy and the institutional structure which supports it. China’s search for energy security has led the PRC to develop closer political and military ties with a number of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia; Chinese state-owned oil and gas companies have invested billions of dollars in the development of energy assets there. These efforts have been backed up by Chinese civilian and military aid flows to some strife-torn countries in Africa. This is seen by many European politicians and EU officials as ‘undermining’ their efforts to improve quality of governance and respect for human rights in those countries. This chapter examines the differences between the European Union and China over the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan, a country in which China has made significant investments in nearly all aspects of the oil industry.

Australian and Southeast Asian Perspectives on China’s Military Modernization

China’s rapid military modernization has elicited a variety of responses from governments in the region. This article looks at the responses from Australia and two ASEAN states: Indonesia and Singapore. These states have been chosen because they have little or no territorial disputes with China that might influence their attitude towards China’s military modernization. This article argues that China’s military modernization is not driven solely by the pursuit of national reunification but has more to do with the nature of Sino-US competition and China’s ambition to eventually replace the United States as the dominant power in the region. It is this competition that provides the rationale for Chinese military planners to seek to expand and modernize their military capabilities. And it is China’s spectacular economic rise that provides the financial means toward that end. The United States, in turn, has responded with its ‘pivot’ to Asia to reassure its allies and partners in the region of its determination to maintain its hegemonic position in the region. But not all states in the Asia Pacific region have been equally worried about China’s military modernization. In examining the responses of three different states with varying degrees of security links with the United States, this article will attempt to identify the similarities and differences in the way regional powers have responded to China’s rise. In doing so, it will shed light on the future shape of the security order in East Asia.

Explaining the Longevity of India's Open Economic Policy

A lthough India’s economic reform program and subsequent growth story have not received as much attention from scholars as China’s opendoor policy, enough has been written to give us a fairly good idea of the key elements of the reform agenda that have transformed India’s international image from a poverty-stricken country into that of a land of opportunities. As Jalal Alamgir writes in the preface to India’s Open-Economy Policy: Globalism, Rivalry, Continuity, “economic openness has come to be accepted in society as a core national value” (p. xii). The focus of his book, therefore, is not so much on the substance of India’s open-economy policy as it is on the reasons for the policy’s endurance. In trying to explain why the external economic policies, adopted by the Indian government in the wake of the 1991 balance of payments crisis, have continued despite political protests and changes of government, Alamgir argues that the reforms were justified and continued on the basis of the idea of openness, which was in turn informed by the twin concepts of globalism and rivalry. The ideational motivations for the open-economy policy arose, the author argues, from national ambition (“what do we want to achieve as a nation”) and national placement (“where are we placed relative to other nations”). According to Alamgir, globalism, or the desire to play an important role in world affairs, has been a continuing theme in Indian policy circles and can be traced to the country’s struggle for independence. India’s globalist ambitions, however, underwent a major shift from “a normative to a material claim to globalism” (p. 76) in the 1960s. The earlier normative globalism was based on a desire to influence world politics “according to values cherished in India’s nationalist struggle: peace, democracy, self-determination, and nonalignment” (p. 74). However, the 1962 war with China, Alamgir argues, threw the rivalry with China into sharp relief, such that by the 1990s China was

The European Union and China

This volume brings together the best of contemporary critical analysis of EU-China relations, offered here by an international team of policy analysts, academics and practitioners. The fifteen chapters assembled in this book represent a wide-ranging investigation of the development and framework of EU-China relations and its wider geo-political context. This includes an examination of key areas of concern, such as human rights, economic cooperation, energy security, sports, maritime safety and media policy. Many aspects of EU-China relations covered in this title have, until now, not been available for systematic scrutiny by a wider public. Importantly, this collection presents an examination of the significance of China’s relations with selected global partners – such as the US, Russia, India and Central Asia – for the further evolution of Sino-EU interaction. It should be read by anyone interested in EU foreign policies, the future of China-EU strategic partnership, China’s place in the world, and the development of a multi-polar world order.