www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org INDIA’S FOREIGN POLICY IN CHANGING GLOBAL MILIEU SURESH DHANDA Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, S. A. Jain (PG) College, Ambala City, Haryana, India ABSTRACT The end of the cold war compelled India to re-evaluate and realign its foreign policy according to new changed global milieu. Now it is seriously searching for a greater role in world affairs. Contouring the foreign policy to secure widespread international support and efforts to obtain a permanent seat in Security Council are commensurate with its ambition to be a great power. It is striving to develop its economy to enhance trade and foreign investment, foster international political stability and uplift its international profile. It is also engaged seriously in enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities to cover the Central Asia, Middle East, East Asia and Australasia. But it will not be a smooth sailing for India. It has to face formidable challenges, while vying for a major power status, at all the levels i.e. global, regional, bilateral and domestic. The present paper discovers the present world order system and tries to know where India stands in it. It further investigates the efforts taken by India to acquire a greater role in world affairs. Finally, it highlights the major challenges India is going to face while jostling for a major power status. KEYWORDS: World Order, Post-Cold War Era, Global Challenges, Nuclear Weapons, Economic Ties, NSSP, Look East Policy INTRODUCTION The international system is still in a flux even after the two decades are over. Scholars of international relations are not unanimous about the nature of world order in post cold war era. Accordingly, they have defined this changed global order in different ways creating a surrealistic picture. The present world seems neither completely unipolar nor multipolar. Rather, growing political and economic interdependence is witnessing a non polar world which is more akin to the prevailing realities. 1 On the basis of current distribution of power, world order can be termed as one based on “multi-level interdependence” which resembles, as Joseph S Nye Jr describes, to a “complex three-dimensional chess game” in which one can win only by playing vertically as well as horizontally. 2 In this complex system, on the top level of military issues, the world is still a unipolar system with the United States as the sole super power impregnable. But at the second level, in terms of economic issues, the world is multipolar. In this case US is not a hegemonic power or an empire, rather it has to bargain to achieve outcomes with other players like China, Japan and EU. 3 The bottom level encompasses the broad range of transnational issues from terrorism to climate change and human rights. Here power is distributed in an unequal manner among states and non-state actors. Hence, world cannot be comprehended strictly with the terminologies like unipolarity, hegemony or multipolarity. In military and economic spheres, the present day international system is dominated by US, Russia, UK, France, China (in military and economic terms), Germany and Japan (in economic terms). But there are differences in power position of US v/s all others; Russia v/s UK, EU, France and China; and China v/s the rest. 4 Among them US is the only superpower commanding a strong capability in all the areas of power and can, therefore, be referred to as a “complete power.” In this respect remaining are second-tier major powers consisting of majority of International Journal of Political Science, Law and International Relations (IJPSLIR) ISSN(P): 2278–8832; ISSN(E): 2278–8840 Vol. 5, Issue 1, Feb 2015, 45-58 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.