Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the causes and challenges of the changing balance of power between India's federal government and its regional states with reference to five recent foreign policy case studies.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reviews the causes and challenges of the new balance of power between India's federal government and its regional states in matters of foreign policy. After an initial comparative and historical background, it argues that six actor drive the states' new interest and influence: a) the advent of complex coalition politics; b) economic reforms and new growth distribution; c) the politicization and democratization of external affairs; d) the regionalization of central bureaucratic cadres; e) the new regional diaspora politics and economics; and c) rising cross-border interdependence in South Asia. In order to address this imbalance and ensure an efficient policy-making process even while not compromising on the democratic and federal quality of India's political regime, this leads to five challenges: a) develop a genuinely public, but non-governmental policy expertise; b) improve inter-ministerial coordination, public diplomacy and political strategy-making; c) the increasing bureaucratic temptation to justify external policy postures with reference to domestic obstacles; d) a balance between excessive centralization and excessive diffusion of the decision-making process; and e) inclusion of new regional stakeholders without compromising on expediency and capacity.

The paper illustrates these dynamics with reference to five recent foreign policy case studies in India: the legislative opposition to a new nuclear liability bill; the opening of the retail industry to greater FDI; the veto imposed by the Chief Minister of West Bengal on a transboundary river sharing agreement with Bangladesh; and the mobilization of Tamil regional parties to denounce human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and influence India's UN voting behavior.