The Non-Aligned Movement was founded at the 1961 Belgrade Conference, building on which earlier conference?

The 1945 San Francisco Conference

The 1919 Paris Peace Conference

The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference

India's stated nuclear doctrine, since its declared weapons-state status, is:

No First Use and credible minimum deterrence

Mutually assured destruction alone

The 2005/2008 India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement is significant chiefly because it:

Created the New Development Bank

The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought chiefly over a dispute concerning:

The border, including the McMahon Line and Aksai Chin

The 2020 Galwan clash between India and China is significant as:

The deadliest India-China clash since the 1962 war

The founding moment of panchsheel

The signing of the Civil Nuclear Agreement

India's entry into the Non-Aligned Movement

Reading India's foreign policy through its identity as a 'rising power' emphasises chiefly:

A growing voice in shaping global rules, such as G-20 membership and UNSC ambitions

Solidarity with the developing world through G-77 alone

The memory of colonial subjugation alone

Strict non-alignment from all blocs

India's Foreign Policy I: Perspectives, Continuity and Change, and Relations with Major Powers

Unit 6 turns Unit 5's general IR theory onto one case, India, asking how India's own identity is read, what has stayed constant in its foreign policy since 1947 and what has changed, and how it has managed its three most consequential bilateral relationships.

1. Perspectives on India's foreign policy

India's identity as postcolonial — a foreign policy shaped by the memory of colonial subjugation, giving anti-colonialism, sovereignty and non-interference a lasting normative weight, and lending India solidarity with other formerly colonised states of the Global South.
India's identity as a developing country — foreign policy long organised around development priorities (technology access, trade concessions, aid) and solidarity with the developing world (G-77, Non-Aligned Movement) against a perceived Northern-dominated international economic order.
India's identity as a rising power — since the 1990s reforms and especially the 2000s, a growing self-conception and external recognition of India as a major power in its own right — G-20 membership, a permanent UN Security Council seat ambition, and a larger voice in shaping (not merely responding to) global rules.
India as an emerging political economy — an increasingly large, globally integrated economy that itself shapes international economic negotiations (trade, climate finance, digital governance) rather than merely being a rule-taker, reflected in its weight at the WTO, G-20 and climate negotiations.

2. Continuity and change: principles, Non-Alignment, nuclear policy

Nehru's founding principles — sovereign equality of all states, peaceful coexistence (panchsheel, formalised with China in 1954: mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful coexistence), non-alignment, and support for decolonization and disarmament — remain the stated normative core even as India's actual conduct has grown more pragmatic and multi-aligned since the Cold War's end. The Non-Aligned Movement (founded at the 1961 Belgrade Conference by Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah, building on the 1955 Bandung Conference) refused formal alliance with either Cold War bloc, asserting an independent foreign-policy space for newly decolonised states; NAM's relevance is debated post-Cold War, since a bipolar world to be 'non-aligned' from no longer exists in the same form, though India still invokes its normative language (strategic autonomy) in a now-multipolar setting.

ℹ️ India's nuclear policy timeline

1974 'Smiling Buddha' (Pokhran-I) — first nuclear test, described as a 'peaceful nuclear explosion'; 1998 Pokhran-II — a series of tests declaring India an overt nuclear weapons state; India's stated doctrine is 'No First Use' (NFU) and 'credible minimum deterrence', and India has never signed the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) or the CTBT (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty), regarding both as discriminatory between recognised and non-recognised nuclear states.

3. Relations with the USA

Indo-US relations moved from Cold War-era estrangement (India's tilt toward the USSR, US-Pakistan alliance through SEATO/CENTO, and sharpest friction after India's 1974 and 1998 nuclear tests drew US sanctions) to a post-Cold War, and especially post-2000s, strategic partnership. The 2005 India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement (concluded 2008, requiring a special India-specific waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group) ended India's nuclear isolation without India signing the NPT — a landmark departure from earlier non-proliferation orthodoxy. Deepening defence cooperation (the 2016 'Major Defence Partner' designation, foundational agreements such as LEMOA, COMCASA and BECA enabling logistics support, secure communications and geospatial data-sharing) and the Quad (India, US, Japan, Australia, revived 2017) reflect a shared, if not identical, interest in balancing China's rise in the Indo-Pacific.

4. Relations with the USSR/Russia and the People's Republic of China

India's relationship with the USSR, formalised in the 1971 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation (during the Bangladesh Liberation War crisis, when the USA tilted toward Pakistan), was the Cold War's closest and most durable partnership India held with either bloc — defence supply, diplomatic support at the UN (Soviet vetoes shielding India on Kashmir), and economic cooperation (public-sector steel plants, Bhilai). Post-1991, Russia inherited this relationship's 'special and privileged strategic partnership' framing, remaining India's largest source of legacy defence equipment even as India has diversified its defence suppliers (USA, France, Israel).

India-China relations: key moments
Moment	Significance
Panchsheel (1954)	Five principles of peaceful coexistence formally agreed between Nehru and Zhou Enlai — the high point of early 'Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai' friendship rhetoric.
1962 Sino-Indian War	A sharp, unresolved border dispute (over the McMahon Line/Aksai Chin) erupted into war, ending panchsheel-era friendship and leaving the boundary question unresolved to this day.
Border stand-offs (Doklam 2017, Galwan 2020)	Recurrent tension along the unresolved Line of Actual Control, with Galwan (2020) the deadliest clash since 1962 and a major driver of India's subsequent Quad engagement and economic decoupling measures (app bans, investment screening).

⚠️ Do not conflate Russia's and China's relationships with India

A question on 'special and privileged strategic partnership' or the 1971 treaty of friendship points to Russia/USSR; a question on panchsheel's 1962 collapse, the unresolved boundary, or Doklam/Galwan points to China — the two relationships have moved in opposite directions since the Cold War (Russia stable/legacy-close, China increasingly adversarial along the border even as trade ties grow).

Key takeaways

India's foreign-policy identity is read through four lenses — postcolonial, developing country, rising power, and emerging political economy — each pulling toward a different set of priorities.
Nehru's principles (sovereign equality, panchsheel, non-alignment) remain the stated core even as conduct has grown more pragmatic; NAM (1961, from Bandung 1955) refused Cold War bloc alliance, and India's nuclear policy (1974, 1998, NFU doctrine, non-signatory to NPT/CTBT) is a distinct axis of continuity and change.
Indo-US ties moved from Cold War estrangement to a post-2000s strategic partnership, anchored by the 2005/2008 Civil Nuclear Agreement and defence cooperation (LEMOA, COMCASA, BECA) plus the Quad.
The 1971 Treaty with the USSR was Cold War India's closest partnership, inherited by post-1991 Russia; India-China relations moved from panchsheel's 1954 friendship through the 1962 war to unresolved border tension (Doklam, Galwan).
India's nuclear doctrine (No First Use, credible minimum deterrence) and its refusal to sign the NPT/CTBT as discriminatory are consistent, decades-long positions across both Pokhran tests.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Panchsheel, the five principles of peaceful coexistence, was formalised between India and China in:
1. 1954
2. 1962
3. 1971
4. 1998
Show answer
Answer: A — 1954
Panchsheel was agreed in 1954 between Nehru and Zhou Enlai, well before the 1962 war that ended this friendship-era rhetoric.
The Non-Aligned Movement was founded at the 1961 Belgrade Conference, building on which earlier conference?
1. The 1955 Bandung Conference
2. The 1945 San Francisco Conference
3. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference
4. The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference
Show answer
Answer: A — The 1955 Bandung Conference
Bandung (1955) is NAM's direct precursor; San Francisco founded the UN, Paris ended WWI, and Bretton Woods established the IMF/World Bank.
India's stated nuclear doctrine, since its declared weapons-state status, is:
1. No First Use and credible minimum deterrence
2. Mutually assured destruction alone
3. Signatory status to the NPT
4. Full ratification of the CTBT
Show answer
Answer: A — No First Use and credible minimum deterrence
NFU and credible minimum deterrence are India's own stated doctrine; India has never signed the NPT or CTBT, regarding both as discriminatory.
The 2005/2008 India-US Civil Nuclear Agreement is significant chiefly because it:
1. Ended India's nuclear isolation without India signing the NPT
2. Formalised panchsheel
3. Established the Quad
4. Created the New Development Bank
Show answer
Answer: A — Ended India's nuclear isolation without India signing the NPT
The agreement's landmark significance is precisely this NPT-independent normalisation, via a special NSG waiver; the other options are unrelated events.
The 1971 Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, India's closest Cold War-era partnership, was signed with:
1. The USSR
2. The USA
3. China
4. The European Union
Show answer
Answer: A — The USSR
The 1971 treaty was with the Soviet Union, signed amid the Bangladesh Liberation War crisis when the US tilted toward Pakistan.
The 1962 Sino-Indian War was fought chiefly over a dispute concerning:
1. The border, including the McMahon Line and Aksai Chin
2. Nuclear disarmament
3. WTO trade rules
4. The Quad's formation
Show answer
Answer: A — The border, including the McMahon Line and Aksai Chin
The unresolved border dispute is the war's own cause, ending panchsheel-era friendship and leaving the boundary contested to this day.
The 2020 Galwan clash between India and China is significant as:
1. The deadliest India-China clash since the 1962 war
2. The founding moment of panchsheel
3. The signing of the Civil Nuclear Agreement
4. India's entry into the Non-Aligned Movement
Show answer
Answer: A — The deadliest India-China clash since the 1962 war
Galwan (2020) is specifically the deadliest clash since 1962 and a major driver of India's subsequent Quad engagement and economic decoupling measures.
Reading India's foreign policy through its identity as a 'rising power' emphasises chiefly:
1. A growing voice in shaping global rules, such as G-20 membership and UNSC ambitions
2. Solidarity with the developing world through G-77 alone
3. The memory of colonial subjugation alone
4. Strict non-alignment from all blocs
Show answer
Answer: A — A growing voice in shaping global rules, such as G-20 membership and UNSC ambitions
The 'rising power' lens is specifically about growing weight in shaping (not merely responding to) global rules; the other options describe the developing-country and postcolonial lenses, and NAM's non-alignment.