This seminar will focus on the increasing importance of the role that India not only plays within South Asia but also more broadly within global affairs. India’s dramatic economic growth over the last 20 years has made India a major player in the world economy, with important implications for its neighbors in South Asia. This growth has occurred within a historic competitive democratic political system that contains both ideological and populist opposition; however, successive governments have held to a policy of economic liberalization even when two incumbent ruling coalitions were defeated. The changes that have occurred as a result of this dramatic growth now provide ample opportunities for research for students interested in trade and development, environmental, national security policies as India and her neighbors cope with the problems that rapid economic change brings.

India’s relative success in avoiding the current economic problems of the EU and North America has attracted the attention of analysts and investors, just as India’s growth rate is slowing down. How India and her neighbors are responding to the world crisis gives this topic special current relevance. Finally, we will examine how the world’s largest democracy has coped with another emerging power in the East, China, and the world’s remaining superpower, the United States.