CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Shanmugasundaram, Sasikumar |
|---|---|
| Title | Regional Hegemony and Emerging Powers: Theorizing India's Neighborhood Policy |
| Summary | Why do emerging powers pursue regional hegemony as their foreign policy strategy? I address this question in the context of the post Cold War era, where countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Indonesia and South Korea have emerged as economic, diplomatic and military powerhouses in international relations. Since the American case demonstrated that it is possible to achieve regional hegemony, many emerging powers are invariably tempted to emulate the United States and try to dominate their region of the world. In some instances, emerging powers were able to pursue regional hegemony, yet in others it failed. In this thesis I build a theory called the ‘Theory of Military Organizational Culture in Coalitions’ that draws upon the variables from minimum connected willing coalition theory and military organizational culture to explain a state’s pursuit of regional hegemony. I argue that if the military organization has an offensive doctrine and when there is a strong cabinet then a state would pursue a hegemonic strategy in its neighborhood. However, when the military organization has a defensive doctrine a state will not be able to pursue regional hegemony even when the cabinet has a shared policy orientation for exercising regional hegemony. I test this theory with an intensive case study of India’s neighborhood strategy, which provides the control and variation required for longitudinal analysis. Process tracing shows that in similar structural conditions, India pursued regional hegemony under the Indira Gandhi government because the Indian military had an offensive doctrine but was unable to pursue regional hegemony under Vajpayee government because the Indian military had a defensive doctrine that stymied India’s goal to exercise hegemony in South Asia. In broad terms I offer a contingent generalization that emerging powers can pursue regional hegemony only when a strong coalition and an offensive strategic culture in the military are dominant. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin K. |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/shanmugasundaram_sasikumar.pdf |
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