IASbaba’s International Relations Strategy/Paper 2 –

UPSC Mains Examination

iasbaba.com/2015/07/iasbabas-international-relations-strategypaper-2-upsc-mains-examination

July 27, 2015

Introduction
Decoding Directives
Paper 1
Paper 2
International Relations
Paper 3
Paper 4

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STRATEGY FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

The syllabus of International Relations (IR) in GS Paper II is given below:

India and its neighborhood- relations.

Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving
India and/or affecting India’s interests
Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries
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on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their
structure, mandate.

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Sources and resources:

Pax Indica by Shashi Tharoor- Voluntary

India’s Foreign Policy: Coping with the Changing World by Muchkund
Dubey
World Focus Magazine
The Hindu
Live Mint
Indian Express articles by C Rajamohan
IDSA
MEA Website
MEA Annual Report

Note– Do not panic about lots of sources. IASbaba will be covering them all
Pax Indica and Muchkund Dubey- Any one of them will suffice.

Introduction

IR is the most dynamic portion of the UPSC Mains syllabus. One needs to
keep a tab on all the recent developments happening around the world
that directly or indirectly affect India. IR is also one of the most analytical
segments of the syllabus. A thorough understanding is required and thus
superficial knowledge is of no use as far as IR is concerned. Many
candidates find it difficult to manage IR because of its vast and
contemporary nature for the simple fact that not only one must be
acquainted with history to make sense of the current developments but
also be intelligent enough to make projections for the future. Although
candidates start preparing for IR with much zeal and enthusiasm but all of
that fizzles out soon for the reasons explained before. It is thus important
to have a clear understanding of some basic concepts related to the
syllabus before we lay out a detailed plan for the same. You have to equip
yourself with the following static portion before you start reading and
appreciating current developments in the field of IR:

1. Basic philosophy and assumptions underlying IR

2. Evolution of India’s Foreign Policy
3. How the world has changed in the past few decades; impact of
those changes
4. How India’s Foreign policy has responded to those changes

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 5. Role being played by India on a regional, global and institutional
levels in the past

The best books for this purpose are India’s Foreign Policy: Coping with
the Changing World by Muchkund Dubey or Pax Indica by Shashi
Tharoor. Initial few chapters of both these books have dealt with all the
basic information that is required to expand your knowledge base with
respect to IR. You shall be able to better understand and appreciate India’s
Foreign Policy (IFP) thereafter. For example:

All our policies are aligned to primarily serve India’s national interests,
secure India’s borders, ensure military and non-military security and
promote global peace.

We as a nation-state believe in certain cardinal principles which

include non-alignment, nuclear disarmament, multilateralism etc.

An understanding of aforesaid philosophies and principles would

make you aware of the underlying rationale behind India’s stance on
various issues, fora, events and developments.

Moreover, you shall get acquainted with the following dimensions of

IR which will broaden your horizon further:

How changes in the past few decades for example end of Cold War,
disintegration of USSR, end of bipolarity, emergence of capitalism,
nuclear arms race, evolution environmental regimes etc have
changed the world and also how India responded to them.

What sort of strategies India adopts in exercise of its Foreign Policy.

After having already made a strong foundation, you can delve into the
subsequent chapters of the books. We shall recommend Pax Indica over
Muchkund Dubey in this case as the former is more exhaustive, analytical
and elaborate than the later. India’s relations with various countries,
groupings and sub groupings have been dealt under following heads:

India and it’s neighbors

Indo-US relations
Indo-Russia relations
Indo-China relations
Arab World and rest of Asia
Europe, Africa and Latin America

Only after completing these components you should look forward to news
papers. You would be able to make sense of the editorials in a much
comprehensive manner. But there is a little problem here. Even if one
goes through all these sources and develops a thorough understanding of
the same, it is not possible to retain the truckload of information and

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perspectives provided therein. In fact in the examination, this problem
gets accentuated where one has to write an analytical answer in less
than 8 minutes.

So no matter how many sources you have referred to and how diverse
your understanding is, if you are not able to produce a satisfactory
response to a question, all your efforts are wasted. UPSC doesn’t give you
consolation prize for being a laborious aspirant!

So, what it is the way out? How one can extract maximum from his
preparation to get the ultimate reward by UPSC? The answer lies to
extensive planning and execution. Basically all the subjects and topics
that you are studying are having souls. You have to try to be as close as
possible to the soul of the subject and channelize your efforts in that
direction. It means you first need to identify all the dimensions of a subject
in the current scheme of things. Then you must organize them in easily
understandable compartments to ease your preparation. In the age of
internet, everyone knows everything but what makes one unique is his/her
ability to streamline all the scattered info to generate a logical response. It
helps you like tools and equipments. All topics of the syllabus can be
prepared with the help of different tools. But since our attention here is IR,
we demonstrate to you how such tools can be developed and actually be
employed during the examination.

So, here is a word of advice for you. Although, the books referred here
are systematic and lucid in their presentation, while you read these
relations from these books or any other source of your liking and of course
news papers, make sure that you compartmentalize the given wisdom in
the following separate headings. In fact it would be even better if you
prepare short notes or mind maps of the same: (IASbaba will provide
detailed Mind Maps for the same)

1. Significance of the relation

2. Brief historical background i.e. major landmark moments
3. Identifying Four Cs i.e areas of Convergence, Confrontation,
Competition and Cooperation
4. Projecting the future

You will be amazed to notice how simple it becomes if we further

breakdown these broad headings and superimpose relations with any
country, grouping or sub grouping to extract maximum information from
our memory particularly during examination. We shall take up a case to
demonstrate the same but before we do that let’s expand these headings.

Talking of significance, here are few pointers that you shall keep in mind:

1. Is the country concerned a major economic/military/nuclear power?

2. Does location of the country offer unique opportunities or may be
challenges?
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 3. Does India have significant trade dealings with the country?
4. Does substantial foreign investment flow to India from the country in
question?
5. Is there any important defence/security tie with the country?
6. Is there any dependence on the country for energy or food security?
7. Is Indian diaspora present in the country?
8. Has the country contributed in India’s growth?
9. How do events/developments/outlooks/regimes/policies in the
country affect India’s interests?

Similarly pointers for the rest headings can be constructed as follows:

Historical background:

1. Immediately after independence, where did the country fit in IFP?

2. Contribution of the country in developing India’s industrial, defence
and scientific base
3. Deals or treaties signed between the countries
4. Conflicts in the past and their consequences

Note- Identifying the Four Cs i.e areas of Convergence, Confrontation,

Competition and Cooperation

Convergence:

1. Democratic form of government

2. Pluralistic societies
3. Development imperatives
4. Common problems

Confrontation:

1. Border disputes
2. Resource sharing
3. Cross border terrorism
4. IPR
5. Global environmental negotiations
6. Trade disputes

Competition:

1. Exploration and development of resources in different parts of the

world
2. Role in sensitive areas
3. Geo-strategic competition

Cooperation:

1. Dealing with terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental pollution

2. Common stance on environmental negotiation forums and WTO

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 3. Defence and security ties
4. Trade development
5. Infrastructure development
6. Science and technology
7. Global peace and stability

NOTE- Remember these pointers. We will be using them below to

understand the significance of them one by one with an example.

Finally, projecting the future is something that requires in depth

understanding and also the aptitude to extrapolate history and current
developments to predict the future. Don’t worry about this part as for now.
Once you evince interest in the subject, you shall be able to develop this
quality as well.

So, we have developed our tools. You can add upon these tools as per
needs and demands of the topic.

You shall notice during preparation of IR that all the news paper reports
and articles hover around these pointers only. There is rarely a possibility
of any information, views or opinions going beyond these pointers.

Since you have these pointers already, simply put the information received
in the respective compartment.

For example if you have read articles on Indo-US relations in the past
one year or so, you would have realized that the issues were centered
around the following components:

Convergence: Repeated reference to democracy, pluralism and equity by

leaders of both nations

Cooperation: Finalization and operationalization of the Indo US Nuclear

deal, deals for sharing tax information to curb money laundering etc

Confrontation: Contentions regarding IPR and Trade Facilitation

Agreement at WTO, divergence at UNFCC, Devyani Khobragade issue etc

Competition: Their roles in Africa, Maritime Asia etc

On the basis of these pointers you can thematically examine the

articles/chapters/news and prepare your own notes/mind maps.
Thereafter, your ideas shall take shape in a logical manner and you would
be able to answer any question. Similar strategy can be adopted with
respect to International Organization, diaspora issues etc.

Now, we take a case to demonstrate our strategy. Consider the

question that was asked in CSE 2013:

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The proposed withdrawal of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from
Afganistan in 2014 is fraught with major security implications for the security of
this region. Examine in light of the fact that India is faced with a plethora of
challenges and needs to safeguard its own strategic interests.

The asked question was in news during that time and anyone regular with
the newspapers and some background could answer the question without
much difficulty. Let us apply our strategy here to answer the same
question.

The question is talking of strategic interests of India in the region. It means

we have to first identify its strategic interests and only then we could
answer the main question that is the challenges that ensue after the
departure of ISAF. If you remember, we talked about significance. Now
refer to those pointers and identify the most suitable ones for this
question. You would accept that except points 2,6 and 7 all other points
are irrelevant for this question. Let us enumerate these points and expand
them to have a fair idea:

Pointer 2. Does location of the country offer unique opportunities or may

be challenges?

Afganistan is gateway to Central Asia and West Asia and a natural frontier
in the North west of South Asian landmass.

This location has created potential to develop a hub of energy trade and
transport corridors. It means that the region is strategic to India’s energy
security.

The region has mostly been a fertile ground for terrorist activities. ISAF
withdrawal would leave a void that can be seized by terrorists again
jeopardizing India’s security i.e. fertile ground for ISI, resurgence of Taliban,
another Kandhar hijack type incidents etc

Pakistan may seize the opportunity provided by US withdrawal to devour

the regime that compromises with them.

Pointer 6. Is there any dependence on the country for energy or food

security?

Already discussed above.

Pointer 7. Is Indian diaspora present in the country?

Yes. A number of engineers, doctors, teachers and many other

professionals are present in this region involved in the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Afganistan. Their lives would be severely under threat of
security in the region is not ensured.

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So, more than half of our job is done by merely recollecting information
from our pointers. Now we can frame the answer by being a bit suggestive
i.e. How we can secure our interests? For framing this part also, we can
refer to our headings of the Four Cs. Clearly, we have to focus upon
cooperation here as all other Cs are irrelevant.

Let us examine it further. Have a close view of what pointers 1, 3 and

5 say.

1. Dealing with terrorism, drug trafficking, environmental pollution

India must work to improve state capacity of Afganistan to combat

terrorism and reduce vulnerability for extremist takeover.

3. Defence and security ties

Capacity building and up gradation of the Afghan National Security Forces

(ANSF) to ensure peace and stability in the region.

5. Infrastructure development

To ensure prosperity in the region that shall ensure long term stability in
the region.

Finally let us consolidate all the information to produce our answer:

Afghanistan is gateway to Central Asia and West Asia and a natural frontier
in the North West of South Asian landmass.

This location has great potential to develop as a hub of energy trade and
transport corridors. It means that the region is strategic to India’s energy
security.

However, the region has mostly been a fertile ground for terrorist activities.
ISAF withdrawal would leave a void that can be seized by terrorists again
jeopardizing India’s security i.e. fertile ground for ISI, resurgence of Taliban,
another Kandhar hijack type incidents etc

In fact, Pakistan may seize the opportunity provided by US withdrawal to

devour the regime that compromises with them.

Moreover, a number of engineers, doctors, teachers and many other

professionals are present in this region involved in the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of Afghanistan. Their lives would be severely under threat if
security in the region is not ensured.

Therefore, India must work to improve state capacity of Afghanistan to

combat terrorism and reduce vulnerability for extremist takeover.

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Also, India can contribute to capacity building and up-gradation of the
Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to ensure peace and stability in the
region.

Finally, India must continue the reconstruction and rehabilitation work in

the region to ensure prosperity in the region that shall ensure long term
stability in the region.

End Note– Similarly, pointers for other parts of the syllabus can be
developed to streamline our understanding of the topic and help us
recollect information in a quick and efficient manner. We shall come up
with similar strategies and more detailed Mind Maps to make your
preparation exciting and easy. Hook for more strategies and expert
guidance on other aspects of Mains preparation to be aggressively covered
after PRELIMS 2015.

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