Dr Stuti Bhatnagar1
1University of New South Wales, Australia
Biography:
Stuti Bhatnagar is a Sessional Academic at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. With a PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Adelaide, her research focuses on the examination of Indian foreign policy and South Asian politics. Her research involves a closer look at the domestic determinants of India’s foreign policy with several peer-reviewed academic publications to her credit. She is the author of India’s Pakistan Policy: How Think Tanks Are Shaping Foreign Relations published by Routledge in 2021.
Abstract:
Australia-India relations are currently at a critical juncture with a strategic convergence that is bringing the two countries closer. As described by DFAT, “India is one of Australia’s most important Indo-Pacific partners, with the relationship characterised by strong people-to-people links and close cooperation at all levels of government.” In recent years, the relationship has achieved significant milestones including the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement and the comprehensive Strategic Partnership. A crucial actor involved in the evolution of this relationship has been foreign policy think tanks. Think tanks in India and Australia have actively promoted the ongoing development of the relationship through the authoring of reports and the organisation of conferences and dialogues. Despite the prominence of think tanks in the evolving strategic relationship, an understanding of India’s foreign policy making process and the organisations involved in it has been largely neglected by Australia's international relations research and policy communities. This paper attempts to address this neglect by providing a conceptual understanding of how think tanks as domestic policy actors create and share ideas to influence India’s national policies. Through an examination of think tank engagement with the developing Australia-India relationship, this paper will provide a deeper analysis of the structural and institutional context in which think tanks in India develop as domestic policy actors. It will build a conceptual understanding of the power relationships that underpin and inform think tank interactions, highlighting how think tanks use power and negotiate their place within the foreign policy ecosystem in India.