Limits to strategic hedging

It may be time for a fundamental reassessment of our policy options vis-a-vis China

It is now conventional wisdom that the policy of non-alignment and strategic autonomy served India exceedingly well in the first six decades or so of its independent existence. Sure, there were times when the policy strained at the leash: one such instance was 1971 when India signed a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation with the erstwhile Soviet Union; yet another was the position we took when Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. But on the whole, India managed to walk the tightrope pretty well and it may be reasonably argued the policy helped us punch above our weight in