INDIA’S BID FOR REGIONAL HEGEMONY
AND THE WAR ON TERRORIM
Silviu PETRE
National University of Political and Administrative Sciences, Bucharest
Tel:004-0318.08.97, E-mail: silviugeopolitic@yahoo.com
Abstract
The advent of the war against terrorism as a grand narrative has enmeshed both theory and praxis of international relations in intricate ways. Political science and politics, security studies, military art, immigration laws, ethics and social services have been recrafted to respond to an anthropology of fear which has almost become a domain in itself. War-on-terrorism as Weltanschaung was used not only by the USA but also by many other states, both liberal and authoritarian, in order to tackle their security problems, possibly silence opponents or advance their interests. This article envisages the aformentioned hypothesis for the case of India.
The findings of the study show that the Indian war against terrorism has served more as a tool for nation-building than for maximizing regional power.
Nonetheless New Delhi remains an inconsistent hegemon with mixed influence over its neighbours’ stability.
Keywords: India, regional hegemony, hegemonic stability theory, post-Western IR, war on terrorism