The Great Power Show
The Great Power Show
Podcast Description
The world is changing fast. Developing countries are on the rise, politics in the West is more turbulent than ever, technology is advancing at breakneck speed, people are moving across borders in new ways, and global institutions are struggling to keep up. In the middle of all this, a new world order is taking shape—but what does it really look like?
On The Great Power Show, Manoj Kewalramani dives into these big shifts and what they mean for all of us. Join him for candid conversations and thought-provoking interviews with leading scholars, thinkers and practitioners.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes such as the shifting global power dynamics, India's role in international affairs, and the challenges of modern political environments. For example, episodes like 'India's Tryst With Destiny' delve into the historical context of India's foreign policy, while 'Steering the Wild Horses of American Power' examines the consequences of changes in American foreign policy under new leadership.
The world is changing fast. Developing countries are on the rise, politics in the West is more turbulent than ever, technology is advancing at breakneck speed, people are moving across borders in new ways, and global institutions are struggling to keep up. In the middle of all this, a new world order is taking shape—but what does it really look like?
On The Great Power Show, Manoj Kewalramani dives into these big shifts and what they mean for all of us. Join him for candid conversations and thought-provoking interviews with leading scholars, thinkers and practitioners.
There is a school of thought in international relations that strips away the comforting language—the values, the norms, the rhetoric of solidarity—and looks at the world as it is. States pursue power. Interests are permanent. And the gap between what countries say and what they do is almost always explained by material calculation, not moral commitment.
That school of thought is realism. And when you apply it to India, the picture that emerges is considerably less flattering than the one New Delhi prefers to project.
India likes to see itself as a civilisational voice, a bridge-builder, a leader of the Global South, a power with the strategic autonomy to chart its own course. Realism asks a simpler question: given India’s neighbours, given the gap in material power between India and them, given the choices India actually faces—what are its real options?
The answer is not comfortable. China is on India’s border, vastly more powerful, and actively hostile. The United States is India’s most important strategic partner, but it is also pushing India around on trade, tariffs, and technology. India cannot side with China, and the US seems to increasingly be demanding an uncomfortably higher price for its partnership. Squeezed between two great powers, with neither the material strength to resist alone nor the luxury of genuine non-alignment, India seems to be a power constrained by capabilities.
To discuss all this, my guest for this episode of The Great Power Show is Professor Rajesh Rajagopalan, who teaches International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is one of the sharpest realist voices in Indian strategic studies.
We discuss what the world looks like today from the Realist prism. Can the US and China really build a relationship of constructive strategic stability? What bipolarity actually means for a country in India’s position? Is strategic autonomy is an aspiration rather than a strategy? And what India should be doing in BRICS and the SCO, and how to think about the Russia relationship as it atrophies?
As always, I hope you enjoy the discussion. Please like, share, subscribe and rate the episode. And if you’d like to support the show or the work that I do, please do write to me. Your support can make a world of difference.
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