Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This winter has seemed endless for those of us hit with incessant snowstorms. But just yesterday I did notice a few buds on the trees in my backyard so spring may not be too far off. Here are some updates on my work at the Council since last autumn.
In February, I published the third phase of my ongoing project studying India’s approach to the international order in different issue areas, under CFR’s China Strategy Initiative. This third phase—titled “India, the United States, and Diverging Climate and Energy Norms”—featured policy memos by three experts from the U.S., India, and Singapore that explore India’s position on important issues in the climate and energy order: climate diplomacy, oil energy, and carbon emissions. I hope you will enjoy these fascinating contributions from:
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Karthik Nachiappan, Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, who argues argued that India’s climate diplomacy—selectively engaging with UN Framework Convention on Climate Change processes while separately mobilizing finance, technology, and market access for decarbonization without constraining its economic growth or energy access—stands in sharp contrast to the United States’;
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Ashwini K. Swain, Fellow at Sustainable Futures Collaborative, who contends that that India’s energy policy and transition are driven by its domestic energy security needs. While it is pursuing alternative fuels, it is also diversifying its oil imports to hedge its geopolitical bets. Today, Russia has become its largest crude oil supplier. Despite the tensions this has created with the United States, India is unlikely to rapidly diverge from this path; and
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Clara Gillispie, a Senior Fellow for Climate and Energy at the Council on Foreign Relations, who finds that India is in the middle of a revolutionary energy transition, attempting to pull off what other countries such as the United States have done over decades in a very short time frame.
I am grateful to these authors for their contributions and for presenting their research at a CFR workshop in November, followed by an extensive discussion and revision process. I am also deeply indebted to Tom Cutler, Former Director of European and Asia Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, for leading the workshop discussion and for reading and commenting on memo drafts.
I am beginning a new research project examining middle powers and their impact on the international order, and fortuitously for me, Prime Minister Carney’s speech at Davos prominently featured this group of countries. Subsequently in February, I had the opportunity to join the East Asia Institute in South Korea for a conversation titled “Strategic Ambiguity and Middle Power Agency” with President Chaesung Chun, discussing how new alliances may empower middle powers to exert greater influence in global affairs.
Finally in March, I published a piece in Foreign Policy Magazine, titled, “A Middle Powers Club Would Make the World More Dangerous”. I argued that the rise of middle powers is a new force accelerating the fragmentation of the international order, creating the possibility of multiple competing orders and a more dangerous world. I believe it is a timely piece, and I hope you have a chance to read it.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to share this newsletter with those who might be interested. I look forward to updating you again in the coming months.
Sincerely,
Manjari
