Shashi Tharoor and Samir Saran, The New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Pratip Chattopadhyay |
| DOI | 10.1177/09735984211036197 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Jadavpur Journal of
International Relations
25(2) 253 –258, 2021
© 2021 Jadavpur University
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DOI: 10.1177/09735984211036197
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Book Review
Shashi Tharoor and Samir Saran, The New World Disorder
and the Indian Imperative. Aleph Publications, 2020, 291 pp.,
`799 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-81-942337-3-2.
Viewing international relations from a world politics perspective, as
John Baylis and Steve Smith argued in 2001, gives a panoramic sketch
of events and processes across the globe having different dimensions
affecting inter-state relations where changes in its contour are seen as
‘breaks’ in established order equating it with ‘disorder’. Covid-19
pandemic creating lockdown experiences across the world resonate
‘disorder’ perspective in world politics putting a ‘break’ in normal
interconnectedness and interdependence effected by intense globalization.
The present book under review, published just before pandemic,
familiarizes readers with changing orientation of world politics, from
realism to new normativism, in making foreign policy choices with some
leading thoughts on Indian course of action making a case for anormative
‘New Delhi consensus’ replacing the earlier models of Washington
consensus and Beijing consensus.
Before the book actually starts, the authors highlight certain important
event-dates in-between 2016 and 2019, qualifying changes across the
world ranging from Europe to Asia with special emphasis on Trump era
in the United States. This eventalization of ‘dates’ are titled as ‘prologue’
due to their profound potential to create breakaway approaches to world
politics rooted in nationalism–globalism binary narrative. ‘Indian
imperative’ being the main thrust, the authors would have done justice to
put ‘re-election’ of Prime Minister Modi in 2019 as an important date as
prologue to a more enterprising Indian foreign policy.
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