Book Review: Bharat Karnad, Why India is Not a Great Power (Yet)
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929917716892 |
| Author | Gazala Fareedi |
| Date | 01 November 2017 |
| Published date | 01 November 2017 |
| Subject Matter | Book ReviewsInternational Relations |
624 Political Studies Review 15(4)
Political Negotiation: A Handbook by Jane
Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin (eds).
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2016.
296pp., £25.95 (p/b), ISBN 9780815727293
Political Negotiation is a collection of essays
edited by Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin
with contributions by a group of American and
Canadian scholars of political negotiation, psy-
chology, the US Congress and democracy. This
volume originates from a report entitled
‘Negotiating Agreement in Politics’, which was
issued by the American Political Science
Association in 2013. It focuses on the pull and
push factors of reaching mutually acceptable
binding agreements in political negotiations. The
volume has an introduction and seven chapters.
Based on the case studies of democratic
countries (especially negotiations in the US
Congress) and negotiations in international
relations, the editors and contributors to the
collection provide a wonderfully probing and
thought-provoking examination of the most
significant pull factor, negotiation myopia,
which is characterised by two forms of bias,
namely, fix-pie bias and self-serving bias. The
former prevents negotiators from evaluating
the potential gains and the latter makes nego-
tiators overestimate their likelihood of taking
the advantage in negotiations.
How then to deal with negotiation myopia?
In the words of the contributors, the best solution
to negotiation myopia is deliberative negotiation,
although it is ‘harder to take the perspective of
others outside one’s own culture’ (p. 21).
Deliberative negotiation should be based on
‘mutual justification’ and be ‘open to both new
ideas and fair compromises’ (p. 135).
Moreover, the editors and contributors to
this collection address the empirical, norma-
tive, methodological and theoretical implica-
tions for both practice and the theory of political
negotiation. For example, as the authors sug-
gest, ‘[e]ffectiveness can be meaningful rela-
tive only to a counter-factual agreement not
reached’ (p. 266). In addition, as they stress,
there is a typical omission in almost all books
on political negotiation; namely, it is very dif-
ficult to observe international negotiations as
most of them are confidential.
Overall, the volume represents a much-
needed resource and an admirable attempt to
provide effective guidance to scholars and
students who are interested in political nego-
tiation. It also extends the literature on nego-
tiation myopia. It is a book that undergraduate
and graduate students and general readers
interested in international relations and the
future of international negotiations would do
well to read. There is a lot to learn from the
volume and potentially a whole lot more to be
learned from the cases it discusses.
Kai Chen
(Xiamen University, China)
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929917717447
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Why India is Not a Great Power (Yet)
by Bharat Karnad. New Delhi, India: Oxford
University Press, 2015. 552pp., £34.99 (h/b), ISBN
9780199459223
This book offers a brilliant read on the many
reasons as to why India is not a great power yet
and what steps it has to take in thought and
action to become one. Outlining the innumera-
ble mistakes the various Indian governments
have made since independence that have proved
to be a hurdle to India’s rise, Bharat Karnad
writes that the main problem that India suffers
from is an ‘ambition void’ (p. 3). ‘[T]here is no
manifestation of the political will to great power,
leave alone the will to achieve it’ (p. 11).
The author goes on to provide an in-depth
analysis of what plagues the Indian system and
is restricting its ascent. He locates the prob-
lems in the lack of a national vision or will of
the political class, the over bureaucratised sys-
tem of governance and the weaknesses of the
existing defence system which is linked to an
under-emphasis on hard power and an over-
emphasis on soft power. He writes that India’s
defence procurement system is ‘monumentally
flawed’ (p. 431) which hampers the indigenisa-
tion of production and an over-dependence on
importing.
Drilling in the point that a country depend-
ent on others for its defence structure cannot
become a great power, Karnad also outlines the
ills of the economic and foreign policy system.
Indian diplomats are attuned to see the world in
terms of friendly states and to exercise restraint
and responsibility even when India is being
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