Analysing Diplomatic Practices to Understand Foreign-Policy Behaviour: A Sociological Approach to India’s Diplomacy in a Changing World

In the context of the post-bipolar world, the rise of new powers has attracted significant academic interest. Nevertheless, few scholars analyse the diplomatic instruments that emerging powers resort to in order to achieve their goals. This paper seeks to fulfil this gap, by looking at India’s diplomatic structures and practices since the end of the Cold War. Drawing on empirical research and interviews conducted at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, the paper first highlights the structures of India's diplomatic bureaucracy while questioning their capacity to adapt to the post-Cold War changes. In a second time, it questions the practical perspectives of the agents involved in the quotidian of India's diplomatic bureaucracy. It then attempts to interpret the consequences of these structural bureaucratic and sociological characteristics on India’s foreign-policy behaviour, well illustrated by the case of India’s increasing reach in West Asia.