Paranjpe, Shrikant

Abstract
Indian strategic thinking is a product of its historical, cultural, geopolitical, socio-economic compulsions; it sought a preservation of India’s strategic autonomy with a revisionist perspective that was structured to tackle the status quo created by the great powers. Today, given India’s technological and economic capabilities, it is demanding space in the decision-making circles of the world. India-US security dialogue began sometime in the late 1980s. It was only after September 2001 that India-US security ties gained real momentum. The new key word in India-US defence relationship is ‘inter-operability’. It signifies the mutual desire of both the countries to work more closely in the area of military cooperation and also portrays a possibility of sharing strategic doctrines and operations in the future to tackle new challenges. There are several issues that are likely to dominate the security dialogue. They include issues of terrorism associated with Pakistan and Afghanistan and American policies in that area; the question of technology transfer; nuclear non-proliferation; and the overall political discourse on non-military aspects like Human Rights and the ethnic nationalism based right to political self-determination movements that appear to elicit American attention at times.
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