India in the Arctic: Science, Geopolitics and Soft Power - Perspectives on Contemporary Indian Foreign Policy

• Main Author: Gewelt, Alexander
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Indian foreign policy; Soft Power; Arctic; Indian; Svalbard; Arctic Council
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10852/52355; http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-55788

This thesis is an analysis of contemporary Indian foreign policy from the vantage point of India’s recent engagements in the Arctic. By analysing what is argued to be an ‘Indian Arctic discourse’ that emerged between India’s first expedition to Svalbard in 2007 and the following accession to observer status in the Arctic Council in 2013, this thesis explores how this discourse frames the Arctic within a broader Indian foreign policy perspective. The Indian Arctic discourse establishes India as a stakeholder in the Arctic and envisages India as playing an active role in Arctic affairs. Studying this discourse unveils central principles and themes in Indian foreign policy, and offers new perspectives on contemporary Indian foreign policy. This is the first study to use soft power theory to discuss how the Indian Arctic discourse views India as an emerging power on the global stage and how India pursues its interests internationally, and in the Arctic region in particular. As this thesis shows, soft power has increasingly become a part of contemporary Indian foreign policy, both in official policy and in the academic discourse.