Routledge Geopolitics in the Era of Globalisation: Mapping an Alternative Global Future

This book presents an alternative roadmap for a world characterised by geopolitical uncertainty. The surging expectations about a future world of democratic values and high economic growth, born out of superpower bonhomie at the end of the Cold War, did not lead to the promised outcomes. Instead we are faced with deeply destabilising challenges, like climate change, widespread state fragility, terrorism, arms race, disruptive newer technologies, global economic volatility, and ineffectiveness of multilateral institutions, old and new. The volume: surveys the intellectual discourse, the attempts to redesign the global institutions, and the geopolitical trends since the end of the Cold War for an understanding of the contemporary geopolitics, analyses the characteristics of the contemporary geopolitics, the seeming intractability of the global challenges, and the ongoing discourse about preventing their further deterioration, foregrounds the Gandhian praxis and IR theory for managing power transitions anchored in non-violent mobilisation of empowered masses, ensuring institutional resilience, and illustrates them through ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, outlines an approach, based on the Gandhian experience of managing political change, towards conflict, geopolitical uncertainties, and institutional ineffectiveness for securing a better future globally, including South Asia. Accessibly written, this volume will be indispensable for foreign policy experts, government think tanks, and career bureaucrats. It will also be essential for scholars and researchers of international relations, foreign policy, politics, and governance and public policy. Review "The value of this work derives, firstly, from its comprehensive analysis of the evolution of world geopolitics since the end of the Cold War, and the insight that among the forces driving this process was not only the interaction among nation states, but also the adequacy or otherwise of their cumulative learning experience in managing these forces. Also relevant is the elaboration it provides of all pervading influence of globalisation, which gathered pace precisely over this period, in shaping international politics – and not least, the huge problems and challenges it generated. One should further note the author's effort to give rigorous expression to the generalised discomfort and concern regarding the inadequacy of the emergent international system to cope with them. The high point of the book is the bold and refreshing suggestion that the Gandhian praxis might well offer a viable alternative – something which should stimulate reflection. This is an ambitious and multidimensional project, which has indeed turned out well, because of the author's conviction, good sense, diligence and striving for analytical clarity. Overall, we have here a meaningful addition to the corpus of distinctive Indian perspectives on the subject."K. Raghunath, former Foreign Secretary of India, former Indian ambassador to the Russian Federation, the Philippines, and the German Democratic Republic, and former High Commissioner to Bangladesh. "This is an immensely ambitious work, a sweeping survey of geopolitics in the post-Cold War years. Combining erudition with originality, Ambassador Yogendra Kumar analyses the growing inability of global institutions to cope with contemporary challenges. He argues that the answer lies in a Gandhian approach to steering political change and highlights the enduring relevance of the Mahatma’s teachings." C. Dasgupta, Padma Bhushan, former Indian ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg, former Indian ambassador to China, and former High Commissioner to Singapore and Tanzania. "This is a significant contribution in the study of contemporary global power politics on account of the author's insights anchored in the Gandhian philosophy. The author breaks new grounds, brings a rich new archive to our notice and immense