Decoding India’s Neighbourhood Challenge arrives at a critical juncture in South Asian geopolitics. The volume, likely edited by a strategic affairs expert (e.g., Harsh V. Pant or Constantino Xavier, given their work on the subject), systematically unpacks why New Delhi—despite its civilisational heft and economic growth—continues to struggle with asymmetric interdependence, trust deficits, and rival connectivity projects in its immediate periphery. The book moves beyond the cliché of India as a “reluctant hegemon” to dissect the structural, institutional, and perceptual barriers that turn neighbourhood management into India’s most persistent foreign policy headache.
Decoding India’s Neighbourhood Challenge is an essential read for South Asia scholars, foreign policy analysts, and Indian policymakers tired of cosmetic “Neighbourhood First” rhetoric. Its sobering conclusion—that India cannot outspend China but can out-credibility it through faster, need-based, and less intrusive projects—offers a plausible roadmap. However, the book’s realism sometimes borders on pessimism, underestimating how democratic resilience and people-to-people ties might yet tilt the periphery back toward New Delhi.
★★★★☆ (4/5) Deducted one star for relative neglect of maritime and non-state actor dimensions.
Students of IR, MEA officials, strategic journalists, and anyone asking why India remains a “swing power” that cannot lock in its own neighborhood.