NonAlignment 2.0 is an attempt to identify the basic principles that should guide India’s foreign and strategic policy over the next decade. The views it sets out are rooted in the conviction that the success of India’s own internal development will depend decisively on how effectively we manage our global opportunities in order to maximize our choices—thereby enlarging our domestic options to the benefit of all Indians.

The purposes of the present strategy document are three-fold: to lay out the opportunitiesthat India enjoys in the international sphere; to identify the challenges and threats it is likely to confront; and to define the broad perspective and approach that India should adopt as it works to enhance its strategic autonomy in global circumstances that, for some time to come, are likely to remain volatile and uncertain.

NonAlignment 2.0 is the product of collective deliberation, debate and report writing involvinga diverse and independent group of analysts and policy makers, namely: Sunil Khilnani, Rajiv Kumar, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Prakash Menon, Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Raghavan, Shyam Saran, Siddharth Varadarajan. The group was convened in November 2010 and met at regular intervals for over a year, until January 2012. Also present at some of the meetings were the National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon, and the Deputy NationalSecurity Advisors, Alok Prasad and Latha Reddy. The meetings were invariably lively and full of argument and constructive critique: the resulting text therefore, should not be seen as one with whose every line all members of the group would agree. Rather than offer bland consensus, we have preferred a document that we hope will prompt further discussion andelaboration. It is the case, however, that all members of the group fully endorse the basic principles and perspectives embodied in NonAlignment 2.0. Indeed, we collectively wish to bring these principles to the attention of our fellow-citizens and to our political leaders, policymakers and opinion shapers, in order that we might arrive at a basic national consensus about India’s strategic priorities and opportunities.

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Related Events

Launch of NonAlignemnt 2.0. At Ashok Hotel, New Delhi (28 February 2012)

Discussion on Nonalignment 2.0. At Carnegie Endowment, Washington DC (12 March 2012)

Session on “Non Alignment: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty First Century" 21 March 2012, WWF Auditorium, New Delhi

Session on “Non Alignment: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty First Century" by Aspen Institute India (21 March 2012) video available:

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