''Pax Indica: India and the World of the Twenty-first Century'' is a 2012

non-fiction book Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively b ...

written by

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; born 9 March 1956) is an Indian politician, author, and former diplomat, who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, since 2009. He is currently the Chairman of Committee on External Affairs. ...

that discusses India's foreign policy.

Summary

Tharoor emphasizes the significance and impact of

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

for India's society, and states that the primary objective of India's foreign policy must be to protect the process of domestic, social and economic transformation, by working for a benign environment that will ensure India's security and bring in global support for efforts to build and change the country for the better. In the first seven chapters, he analyzes the geopolitical situation of various regions of the world, including

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

the Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

the West West is a cardinal direction or compass point. West or The West may also refer to: Geography and locations Global context * The Western world * Western culture and Western civilization in general * The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, and

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. The bulk of it consists of a brief history of India's relationship with that country, and numerous conflicts, disputes, and solutions are discussed. In the last four chapters, he gives his recommendations. The concepts of '

soft power In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-option, co-opt rather than coerce (in contrast with hard power). It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is ...

' and '

hard power In politics, hard power is the use of military and economics, economic means to social influence, influence the behavior or interests of other political bodies. This form of political power is often aggressive (coercion), and is most immediately ...

' are talked about, and he weighs in the pros and cons of these two ways of influencing foreign policy and diplomacy. A fan of soft power, he believes that India should use a combination of soft power and public diplomacy in this multi aligned world to achieve her objectives.

Reception

In a review of the book, Aditya Menon stated in the weekly Indian

English-language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

news magazine ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media, Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' laun ...

'' magazine that "...''Pax Indica'' promises to be a seminal work on Indian diplomacy" and that "Tharoor covers almost every possible aspect of the foreign policy challenges before the country in the 21st century", providing insights on "India's relations with the US, Pakistan, the UN". However, he does not treat India's relations with Iran and China in depth. In this lively and informative work, Shashi Tharoor demonstrates how Indian diplomacy has become active and where it needs to focus in the world of the 21st century. ''People Matters'' stated "Pax Indica, makes an earnest attempt to take foreign policy thinking to the masses instead of leaving it to bureaucrats or strategic elites."

References

2012 non-fiction books Books about politics of India English-language non-fiction books Foreign relations of India Indian books Penguin Books India books Allen Lane (imprint) books Books by Shashi Tharoor {{India-book-stub