Politics and Geopolitics: Decoding India's Neighbourhood Challenge

India's South Asia policy by its very nature has to be extremely dynamic and nimble. The Narendra Modi government has also articulated an ambitious Neighbourhood First' approach and has invested significant diplomatic capital in it over the last few years. But the underlying factors that havetraditionally framed India's difficulties in getting its neighbourhood policy right remain as potent as ever.Against this backdrop Politics and Geopolitics brings together some of the finest thinkers in thecountry to deliberate on the gamut of political diplomatic and economic issues that India is facing in its neighbourhood beyond Chinese hostilities and the perennial lack of trust with Pakistan. Each chapter provides an overview of the last few years under the Modi government and evaluates the state of the relationship as it exists today touching upon the main areas of disputes and charting out a way forward for the bilateral engagement.This extremely timely and crucial compilation provides a kaleidoscopic view of India'sneighbourhood challenge.Politics and Geopolitics offers a valuable contribution to the fast-growing field ofscholarship on South Asia's international relevance and profile the drivers of national and regional decision-making in each of its countries their various relationships with China and the geo-strategic implications thereof.It explores the possibilities for forward bilateral engagement in the strategic neighbourhood with the hindsight of challenges and suggests workable options for policymakers in what might well turn out to be the defining decade for Indian foreign policy in a re-defined neigh bourhood.This compilation provides a ringside view of India's neighbourhood challenge at a critical juncture when Sino-Indian contestation is sharpening by the day and South Asia isemerging as the central node in the wider Indo-Pacific.As India's ambitions soar on the global stage in accordance with its desire to establishitself as leading power' in the international order getting its neighbourhood right isperhaps more vital than ever.