Beyond the Rhetoric (The Economics of India's Look East Policy) Volume - II

This volume is part of a research program on 'India's Foreign Policy at the Turn of the Millennium: Forging New Partnerships in South-East Asia'. As the strategic and security issues have been addressed in the earlier volume, the present volume deals exclusively with economic issues. It comprises eight contributions and is the result of a second workshop organized in New Delhi in April 2001.

In this connection, the authors examine the potential for increased economic relations between India and ASEAN, as well as the manner in which the structural problems of the Indian economy could undermine these relations. The various essays also seek to draw some lessons for India from the Asian financial crisis.

With a market of around 500 million people and a combined gross domestic product of US $800 billion, ASEAN, one of the most dynamic groups of nations in the world economy, was also perceived as a zone of economic opportunity for India. Starting from a very low level, trade and investments between the two partners developed rapidly. However, they remain even today far below their full potential. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 is only a partial explanation for the unrealized and untapped potential. Although improving at a remarkable pace, India's attractiveness remains limited while its economy is still not export-driven.

These are some of the pivotal issues addressed in this present volume.

Editors Frederic Grare is presently Cultural Counsellor, Embassy of France in Pakistan. Earlier he was Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and worked for the Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies in Geneva. Dr Grare's recent publications include Political Islam in the Indian Subcontinent: The Jamaat-i-Islami; India and ASEAN. The Politics of India's Look East Policy (co-edited with A. Mattoo); India's Energy: Essays on Sustainable Development (co-edited with P.R. Shukla and Pierre Audient), Islamism and Security: Political Islam and the Western World; Tajikistan: The Trials of Independence (co-authored with Shinn Akiner and Mohammed-Reza

Amitabh Matto is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu. He was Professor of International Relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University and Director of the Core Group for the Study of National Security at JNU. Dr Mattoo is also a member of the National Security Advisory Board appointed by the Prime Minister of India. He has been a visiting Professor at Stanford University and the University of Notre Dame. Dr Mattoo has published extensively, including seven books and more than forty articles in leading international journals.