India’s diplomatic strategy in great power rivalry

Yong Soo Park — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This study explores the essence and key characteristics of India’s diplomatic strategy amid the competition between the United States and the China-Russia bloc. As the unipolar order dominated by the United States declines, the world has entered an era of multipolar great-power politics, defined by intense security competition between these blocs. In this shifting global landscape, India has anchored its foreign policy in a strategy of hedging. Rather than aligning exclusively with or balancing against any single major power, India has adopted a clear principle of maintaining balanced relationships with all key players. Taking a neutral stance, India has built a complex web of bilateral and multilateral partnerships with all major powers across political, economic, and security domains. Through this carefully crafted hedging strategy, India preserves its strategic autonomy, ensuring the flexibility needed to navigate diverse diplomatic challenges. At the same time, this approach enables India to maximize its national interests amidst global uncertainties while strengthening its position on the world stage.

Populism and political corruption

Stefan SUMAH — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the relationship between populism and political corruption. Using discourse analysis, it shows that the two phenomena are inextricably linked, as political corruption, along with a lack of good governance, ultimately fosters resentment and distrust in public institutions—attitudes that present an opportunity for populists to employ populist rhetoric in their electoral campaigns. The paper argues that the anger generated by corruption among citizens plays a vital role in bringing populists to power, as they often succeed precisely by promising to eradicate corruption. Drawing on existing literature, the paper finds that populists are more likely to make promises but less likely to keep them—often encouraging new forms of corruption and proving ineffective in addressing existing ones. Populist rule is characterized by three distinct practices: the attempted capture of the state apparatus; corruption and mass clientelism; and the systematic suppression of civil society, which, under the populist principle of ruling “in the name of the people,” becomes delegitimized and increasingly constrained. The paper proposes that the transition from populism to political corruption operates not only at the national level but also at the local level, where politicians are similarly more likely to act populistically when high levels of corruption are already present in the political landscape. Finally, the paper considers a scenario in which populism, combined with political corruption, enables the capture of the state as the highest possible form of corruption.

International Journal of Social Sciences Perspectives

India’s diplomatic strategy in great power rivalry

Populism and political corruption