Political Economy of India's Foreign Policy and It's Connectivity Strategies towards Central Asia

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and almost after two decades, India’s hopes for US support for effectively connect it to the landlocked Commonwealth of Independent States in Central Asia were dashed away. Exploring other connectivity options including the International North–South Transport Corridor -or Iran as the lynchpin of its connectivity- was delayed under the US pressures. Other alternatives were also not feasible. Therefore, given the trajectory of political economy of India’s foreign policy, the main question of this article is ‘what are the best options to get India connected to Central Asia? The hypothesis is that, the demise of the American hegemony has led India to a diversification in its policies. To conclude, the authors develop a model to verify India's foreign policy, and further, they argue that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policy of "Alliance with the United States and the West"; the prospects of India's re-orientation to a balanced multi-alignment policy; as well as India's CIS strategies would be subject to further studies.