Postscripts on Independence: Foreign Policy Ideas, Identity, and Institutions in India and South Africa

By: Vineet Thakur

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Synopsis: India and South Africa, two states that bookended the process of twentieth-century decolonization, punched above their weight in global politics in their initial years of liberation. Postscripts on Independence analyses and compares the making of foreign policy ideas, identities, and institutions of postcolonial India and South Africa. It shows how both countries have responded to the contradictory demands of their freedom struggles against colonialism and pragmatic challenges of international politics. Vineet Thakur argues that the countries’ geopolitical positioning in South Asia and southern Africa make them regional powers, with similar sets of problems and prospects, as both continue to grapple with the idea of maintaining regional and/or continental hegemony. By undertaking a comparative analysis, Thakur explores a framework to understand the foreign policymaking fears, aspirations, and international behaviour of these two nation states.