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Rediff.com  » News » 'Are we condemned to repeat the mediocrity of the past?'

'Are we condemned to repeat the mediocrity of the past?'

March 02, 2015 13:08 IST
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Daniel Markey, academic director and senior research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, believes much sophistication is required by policymakers in the United States if India it to be elevated on a par with Washington’s most durable strategic partners.

He said, “It is not so simple as the message we have been hearing in the not so distant past about potential for our relationship. It is one of a kind of constrained ambition in terms of expectation -- and that is hard to pull off.”

Markey noted that consequently, “It has led me to ask this fundamental question, supposing US policymakers are unwilling or incapable of actually bringing themselves to be the magnanimous, giving, understanding and long patient greater power, in making investments in a relationship with India -- supposing they are not able to do that -- because history would suggest that it’s a reasonable supposition, how bad would that be?”

 “And that many of the things that we share in common -- in terms of say, concerns about China will persist, and despite whatever efforts we might put into the relationship, our differences over things like how much of effort we put into fighting terrorist in places outside of India -- these differences will also persist.”

Markey said, as a result, there is no denying that ‘there is a real conundrum here, and if we can’t say the costs of doing less is sufficiently high to elevate action on the part of top level US policy makers, then I fear we are condemned to repeat the mediocrity of the past.’

Thus, he argued, “There is a subtlety here, which makes it hard and a political and strategic reality, which makes things even harder.”

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