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# PSIR: Write & Rise - 36
- URL: https://www.upscprep.com/psir-write-rise-36/
- Published: 2026-09-14T10:14:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T10:14:43.000Z
- Author: UPSCprep.com
- Tags: PSIR, Write and Rise

**“In a world of intensifying great-power rivalry and economic coercion, the spirit of Non-Alignment is more relevant today than at any point since the Cold War.” Critically examine.** 
**(15 Marks)**

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## Answer

The return of US-China competition and economic weaponisation through tariffs and sanctions has recreated the structural conditions that made non-alignment rational in the first place. K. Subramanian argued NAM was a sound realpolitik strategy for balancing foreign policy amid superpower dominance. That logic has intensified, not weakened.

### The Case for Renewed Relevance

India's behaviour confirms this. In 2025, India resisted US tariffs as high as 50% designed to pressure abandonment of Russian oil, conceding only on its own terms.

T.V. Paul's concept of soft balancing captures what India practises: using diplomacy, institutions, and norms to check dominant power without confrontation.

Simultaneously engaging the Quad, BRICS, SCO, and I2U2 without binding commitments is non-alignment's core logic adapted to multipolarity.

Shyam Saran calls this a modern adaptation of non-alignment: preserving independence while building partnerships.

### The Limits of the Analogy

Yet equating multi-alignment with Cold War non-alignment overstates the continuity.

Raja Mohan argues NAM suffers a crisis of identity and agenda deprivation, obstructing India's participation in necessary strategic coalitions.

India's defence interoperability agreements with the US — LEMOA, BECA, COMCASA — Quad military exercises, and semiconductor partnerships represent a depth of engagement Nehru's equidistance would never have permitted.

Jaishankar frames this as multiple engagements in a multipolar world rather than non-alignment, suggesting the spirit survives but the doctrine does not.

### Assessment

The spirit of non-alignment — sovereign decision-making and refusal of bloc subordination — remains relevant precisely because great-power coercion has returned.

But NAM itself, with 120 members, no secretariat, and no capacity for collective action, is not the vehicle carrying that spirit forward.

India practises non-alignment's logic through BRICS, Quad, G20, and bilateral FTAs, not through NAM. The relevance is real; the institution is not.

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