India’s Growing Global Role as the World Moves Towards a Multipolar Order | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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This was acknowledged by the Singapore Foreign Minister during his meeting with External Affairs Minister of India.

  • Multipolarity is defined as a system in international relations where there are multiple powers exercising significant influence, contrasting with bipolarity (two great powers) and unipolarity (one dominant power)
  • In a multipolar world, different regions and countries have their own interests, values, and agendas, and they cooperate or compete with each other on various issues.

Emergence of a Multipolar World Order

  • Inexorable Transition of the World towards Multipolarity: Present global systems challenge post-World War II global structure of bipolarity dominated by US and USSR.
  • Institutions like the UN, IMF, World Bank, created in a different era, are increasingly being questioned for their current relevance.
    • E.g., Emergence of New Development Bank as an alternative to World Bank.
  • Rise of Plurilateral Fora: They challenge the erstwhile western-dominated, rigid global security structures. E.g. NATO and Warsaw Pact countries.
    • Plurilateral forums like BRICS+, Quad, and SCO highlight an era of flexible alignments, not rigid blocs.

India’s Maintaining Centrality in the Multipolar World Order

  • India’s shift from Non-alignment to Multi-alignment: Engaging with both Western blocs like QUAD and Eurasian groups like SCO, balancing interests pragmatically.
  • India’s Increasing Participation in Minilaterals: The engagements are regional and agenda specific groupings. E.g., Quad, IPEF, I2U2. etc
  • India is working towards a multipolar world that revolves around a multipolar Asia

Challenges faced by India in Maintaining Multipolarity

  • The Ukraine war has revived Cold War-style bloc politics: Pushing the world back into a bipolar framework—led by the US and its allies on one side, and Russia-China on the other.
    • This trend shrinks the geopolitical space India needs to pursue an independent, multipolar strategy.
  • Strategic Pressure to Choose Sides: India’s balancing act between the West (QUAD, Indo-Pacific) and Russia (SCO, BRICS) becomes more difficult to sustain.
  • Weakening of Russia as a Strategic Partner: A Russia heavily dependent on China limits India’s manoeuvrability in Eurasian geopolitics.
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