For readers interested in Indian foreign policy, there is a growing array of valuable books. I recently read former Indian foreign secretary (and current IR professor!) Shivshankar Menon’s book India and Asian Geopolitics: Past, Present. I thought it was fantastic – really embeds India’s experience in the broader politics of Asia, presents an Indian perspective but does so in a very balanced way rather than cheerleading, and covers a remarkably wide range of topics and regions.
It’s also what I consider the best second-book-to-read on Indian FP. It assumes a certain amount of knowledge of Indian history, from the Emergency in the 1970s to balance of payments crises and the details of various wars and crises. Read something like Alyssa Ayres’ Our Time Has Come, Sumit Ganguly’s Indian Foreign Policy, or, for a broader overview, Ram Guha’s India After Gandhi first to get some basics down, and read Menon’s book next. And from there you can pursue more specialized books on a vast, ever-growing number of topics.
Paul Staniland 