International Relations Researches

International Relations Researches

The Impact of Strategic Culture on India's Foreign Policy Towards Israel During Narendra Modi

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Roohollah Talebi Arani 1
Masoud Hamiani 2
1 گروه سیاست جهانی و منطقه ای دانشگاه شهید بهشتی
2 Shahid Beheshti University IR Phd Student
10.22034/irr.2025.547596.2769
Abstract
The foreign policy is constantly changing and evolving under the influence of structural factors, internal dynamics, intentions and motivations of leaders. Meanwhile, India's foreign policy as an emerging power has undergone significant changes since the right-wing government of Narendra Modi came to power. These changes are reflected in India's new policy towards West Asia, titled "Thinking West" and increasing political, military and economic interactions with like-minded actors in the region such as Israel. The aim of this research is to identify the roots of change in India's foreign policy towards the West Asia region, and especially Israel, during the Narendra Modi era.

This article is a descriptive analysis-based research and uses a qualitative method to analyze the collected data. The research data was collected using documentary methods and relying on library sources, articles and statements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Indian leaders.

The research findings show that India's strategic culture, influenced by macro inputs such as the strategic environment and micro inputs such as cultural, security, economic, and diplomatic factors, has influenced the country's foreign policy towards Israel.

The research results indicate that although changes in the geopolitical environment over the past decade have been effective in pushing India and Israel towards each other, under the influence of India's strategic culture, this change has occurred gradually and has led to the formation of the India-Israel strategic partnership.
Introduction
The foreign policy is usually influenced by various internal factors, including: geographical location, military power, national interests, security, economy, culture and nature of the political system, identity and religious and cultural values ​​of a country, as well as structural requirements in the international environment and the regional environment. Since the foreign policy is constantly changing and evolving due to global changes, domestic developments and new challenges, its strategy may serve to maintain the status quo, improve the status quo or change the status quo. Meanwhile, India's foreign policy as an emerging power has undergone significant changes since the right-wing government of Narendra Modi came to power. These changes have been reflected in India's new policy towards West Asia, entitled "Thinking West" and increasing political, military and economic interactions with like-minded actors in the region such as Israel. The aim of this research is to identify the roots of change in India's foreign policy towards the West Asia region, and especially Israel, during the Narendra Modi era. Accordingly, the present study seeks to identify the change in India's foreign policy towards the West Asian region and Israel in light of the conceptual framework of strategic culture.
Conceptual Framework
This study will use the conceptual framework of strategic culture proposed by Alastair Johnson. According to Johnston, strategic culture consists of two main parts: one is related to the worldview of a nation, and the other is the operational aspect of dealing with the world in terms of national interests. The first includes a series of assumptions about the strategic environment (for example, the state of anarchy in international relations or the community of nations), while the second addresses the question of what role strategic culture in all its manifestations plays in the formulation of the final policy. The second part is the macro strategy, or secondary assumptions about operational policy that arise from the previous assumptions. For this study, defining strategic culture from Johnston's perspective as an intervening variable can better help us identify the strategic thinking behind India's foreign policy strategy towards Israel. Therefore, in line with Johnston's view, to examine the impact of strategic culture on India's foreign policy towards Israel during the Narendra Modi era, we will consider two inputs of the country's strategic culture at the macro and micro levels. These inputs include sources such as India's strategic environment; historical, cultural, and ideological legacy; security objectives; economic development goals; and diplomatic discourse that shape India's strategic behavior in the long term.
Methodology
This article is an evolutionary explanatory research. In evolutionary explanatory research, we explain the specific features of the subject of the research, namely the reliance of India’s foreign policy towards Israel on strategic partnership, by explaining how it has evolved and developed from an earlier stage, and for this purpose, we show the events through which India’s foreign policy has reached its current state. In this case, we will need a large number of detailed statements about the events that occurred during the period in question. Of course, it is clear that not all events of this period are mentioned, and the selection of events mentioned in this study is based on assumptions derived from the conceptual framework of strategic culture in terms of the perspective of Alastair Johnstone. In doing so, a qualitative method is used to analyze the collected data, and the research data has been collected using the documentary method and relying on library sources, articles and statements of the Ministry of External Affairs and Indian leaders. Accordingly, data related to India's international policy, and in particular, its foreign policy towards Israel under Narendra Modi (2014-2024), will be subjected to qualitative content analysis.
Discussion
The article argues that India’s strategic culture after independence has been reshaped by new macro inputs such as the country’s strategic environment and macro strategies during the Narendra Modi era, such that we are witnessing a transformation of India’s strategic culture from an idealistic-moral approach to a more realistic one. This change does not mean denying the role of strategic culture as a determining variable, but rather reinterpreting it in the context of Hindu nationalism. Thus, first of all, changes in India’s strategic environment, namely the rise of China and the Indian authorities’ concerns about a unipolar Asian order, led India during the Narendra Modi era to abandon Nehru’s worldview and the long-standing and conservative policy of non-alignment and form new partnerships with like-minded countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Developments in the West Asian region, such as the decline in the importance of Palestine for the Arab world and the weakness of Arab powers after the 2011 Arab uprisings, and the normalization of relations between the Persian Gulf Arab states and Israel in the form of the Abraham Accords, further facilitated the rapprochement of India and Israel. In addition, micro-level factors such as the ideological convergence between the Hindu nationalist movement and the Zionist movement; the importance of Israel as a source of technology in India's economic development policies; the shared perception of security threats between Tel Aviv and New Delhi; India's need for advanced Israeli military equipment; and the important position of Israel in India's new diplomatic discourse have had a major impact on the growing proximity of the two sides since 2014.
Conclusion
The research findings show that the strategic partnership between India and Israel under the Narendra Modi government is, rather than the result of structural changes in the international system or the political decision of the country's leadership, the result of the development of India's strategic culture through three stages: Nehruism (1947-1990), economic pragmatism (1990-2013), and cultural realism (from 2014 to the present). As a result, the rapprochement between India and Israel is not simply a tactical move and political decision, but rather a reflection of a cultural understanding of the country's new threats and opportunities in its strategic environment; in which Israel is seen as a strategic partner in the Modi government's grand strategy to achieve the status of an emerging power.
Keywords
Strategic Culture
India'
s Foreign Policy
Israel
Narendra Modi
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