- India has a golden opportunity to increase its soft power and global stature by taking up a diplomatic initiative aiming for strategic outcomes.
- India needs to look beyond its neighbourhood first policy and adopt an internationalist approach in suggesting peaceful resolution mechanisms in international conflicts, border disputes and ensuring stable relations with other nations.
- Given the present conflict between Ukraine and Russia, a pragmatic suggestion of a conflict resolution mechanism would certainly impact the impression of global powers towards India.
- It will remove the impression of India’s strategic ambiguity and would help in projecting India as having firm foreign policy objectives towards establishing a peaceful and secure multi-polar world order
Ukraine’s ambassador to India has urged our Ministry of External Affairs to initiate a high level dialogue involving Prime Minister Modi, the Russian and the Ukrainian leadership. This is indeed a confirmation of the fact that Ukraine seeks Indian intervention in their ongoing conflict with Russia. As Russia has invaded Ukraine and has sparked a military conflict which could turn into a major conventional war of the 21st century, the need for peace talks and diplomatic intervention has become the need of the hour.
Now, India has a golden opportunity to increase its soft power and global stature. India needs to take up a diplomatic initiative aiming for strategic outcomes. India and the Quad countries conduct the 2+2 dialogue where defence and foreign ministers of both the countries meet in order to discuss the strategic ties and the roadmap ahead for a prosperous and a secure future. Similarly Prime Minister Modi must also initiate a 2+2 dialogue between Ukrainian and Russian counterparts at the first stage. If this dialogue makes any modicum of progress, then a summit level dialogue between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin must be initiated.
Given the current Geopolitical situation in the world the diplomatic initiatives mentioned above bearing serious impacts on international affairs and world politics, might not take off, even in its preliminary stage. But it can become a major foreign policy measure of India which would secure a great deal of global goodwill. Prime Minister Modi has developed a personalized approach towards foreign policy and diplomacy. This approach has brought about excellent vigour and dynamism in dealing with India’s external partners. Through taking up diplomatic initiatives in attempting to de-escalate this conflict, his foreign policy approach could have an impact in resolving the outstanding bilateral issues in the neighbourhood.
At this juncture, India needs to look beyond its neighbourhood first policy. India needs to adopt an internationalist approach in suggesting peaceful resolution mechanisms in international conflicts, border disputes and ensuring stable relations with other nations. It is true that India is facing oodles of challenges at this movement both from the Chinese and through the nuisance of terrorism with Pakistan. The dilemma in strategic choices amidst and with the powerful nation states, and orchestrating the paradox of decision making in foreign affairs often turns out to be a convoluted riddle. Ad hoc choices, knee jerk reactions, and unstable policy paradigms are causing antipathetic repercussions for our national Interests, Geo-Strategically and economically. Therefore strategic thinking and policy paradigms must be evolved with a futuristic vision for establishing international peace and stability. India must take up initiatives that would become landmarks in international law and conduct of global diplomacy. Norms, rules and regulations must be framed through international consensus and approval, that would go on to become the beacon of hope in situations of military and political crises for the entire world.This would ensure that India can emerge as a power and an influential leader in establishing a global liberal world order.
Transformational changes can be witnessed by adopting the Triadic model of Conflict Resolution, also known as transcend method, proposed by Johan Galtung which include: A) Mapping B) Legitimizing and C) Bridging.
With the suggestion of the constitution of a new institutionalized and modernized conflict resolution mechanism at the UN, India must aim to make a paradigm shift in tackling the International conflicts, disputes, and differences specifically relating to the Ukrainian conflict. This can be achieved if we transcend from the static peacekeeping approach to a more evolved peacemaking approach. Such Transformational changes can be witnessed by adopting the Triadic model of Conflict Resolution, also known as transcend method, proposed by Johan Galtung (A prominent peace studies scholar) which include: A) Mapping B) Legitimizing and C) Bridging. Mapping involves identification of the points of conflict escalations and reasons for the development of the conflict. Legitimising involves identification of the legitimate goals and objectives that both the parties need to achieve, systematically initiating a mediation dialogue process to bring about Consensus through a laborious process of extensive diplomatic, political and military negotiations involving members representing the civil society. Legitimising the stage would ensure the civil and political rights following the set standards of international law and treaty obligations. In the stage of bridging the psychological gaps between the nations must be addressed and a reconciliation process must be initiated. This stage involves creativity, overarching and intrusion with the pursuance of concrete goals and objectives, which would eventually pave way for resolving the conflict by peacemaking. This will be a decisive step in putting end to long-standing violent and unresolved conflicts both internally and externally.
Given the present conflict between Ukraine and Russia, this pragmatic suggestion of a conflict resolution mechanism would impact the impression of global powers towards India. It would give them an impression that India can envision global collective security architecture beyond the conventional balance of power and deterrence mechanisms, towards a new dimension of strategic peacemaking i.e. peacekeeping 2.0. It would remove the impression of India’s strategic ambiguity and would help in projecting India as having firm foreign policy objectives towards establishing a peaceful and secure multi-polar world order, beyond its national interests and national security priorities.
(The author has a MA in political science and international relations. The views and opinions expressed are the author’s own)
Viswapramod is a PhD Scholar at the Department of International Studies and Political Science, Christ University, Bangalore. He has an MA in International Relations. Views expressed are the author’s own.
Aayush Pal 
Balaji Subramanian 
Palak Dogra