Audio and transcript from the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center seminar, "Can India Ever Become a Great Power?" with Ashley J. Tellis on Jan. 12, 2017, co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia.
It is now commonplace to think of India's rise as a great power as inevitable. The Indian economy has demonstrated impressive growth during the last twenty-five odd years; India remains one of the few large economies that continues to grow at high single-digit rates despite the global economic slowdown; Indian military capabilities are significant, impressive and expanding; and not surprisingly then, New Delhi seeks a place at the high tables of global governance. The United States has in recent decades placed a strategic bet on India, supporting its rise in the expectation that this will advance American interests in Asia and globally. But will India meet these expectations? In fact, can India become the great power that it seeks to be or is it always destined to remain a great power in waiting, forever promised but never arriving? Tellis addresses this question and its consequences for peace, prosperity and security throughout the Indo-Pacific region.