TWQ: Rising India: Partner in Shaping the Global Commons? - Summer 2010

One of the major emerging U.S. security debates is the impact of rising powers on managing global commons such as the sea, air, space, and cyberspace domains. If the U.S. command of the commons was taken for granted a decade ago, current concerns include the consequences of relative U.S. decline, the rapid diffusion of technological capabilities, crowding of the global commons, and the challenge of managing the commons in a multipolar world. India’s significant technological capabilities and operational programs to exploit the commons are not in doubt. What is not clear, however, is whether the U.S. strategic community sees India as a potential partner in managing the global commons.

Although significant cooperation has already occurred between the United  States and India in the maritime domain of the Indian Ocean, there is no emphasis on New Delhi as a potential partner for the United States across the commons. Other Americans see more open-ended possibilities for engaging India in reframing international global commons regimes, and call for a sustained U.S. engagement with such pivotal actors like India that share Washington’s concerns to keep the commons open. In India too, traditionalists who have long chafed under U.S. primacy in the commons tend to see Washington as part of the problem. And those in New Delhi who fear the post-Cold War unipolar moment would want to insure against U.S. dominance by promoting old forums like the G-77 or new instruments such as the strategic triangle with Russia and China or the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries.

Yet, the United States and India are natural partners in reshaping the global commons. Multilateralism and a strong universalism guide Indian views of global governance. If the drift toward third world radicalism and the excessive emphasis on sovereignty in the 1970s tended to limit India’s vision of the global commons, India’s globalization since the early 1990s and its emergence as a major power have begun to encourage New Delhi to reconsider its past positions. But questions remain: does the United States understand India’s emerging position? Does it agree?  

C. Raja Mohan