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>> I think India does have the capacity to become a superpower.
First of all, it is by far the largest country within its own region.
It has the capacity that sort of to play a dominant regional role and
having a regional base from which to be a global power is vital.
China has the because within East Asia, the United States has a base
within its hemisphere, and traditionally Britain and France had bases
within their hemispheres. So this is very important.
Secondly, its size and its resources, its human resources, also its
material resources, give it the capacity to really take advantage of a
market power. Part of what makes America a superpower is
that people want access to its market.
People want our influence by its level of worth.
And over time by unlocking the potential of its people, India can
achieve that kind of economic superpower base without which it's very
hard to be a world power. Ultimately, you've got to make a choice to
invest in defense to be a superpower.
And I know the Indian government is making several steps in this
direction. But over time, that's something that has to
be sustained in order that for a superpower status United States to be
retained. To create and antibodies and reactions from
your neighbors which carry a price and Indian government have to make
its choice. The final point I think would be about a system
of government. To be a superpower, you need to have a strong
capacity to get power from a strong, central political base.
The United States, although like India federally very split, has been
able to centralize power with its foreign policy issues around the
President. So the Congress is very powerful but it is
more powerful on domestic issues than it is on foreign issues.
That's a big question is whether India will develop a similar type of
political structure with a center and really play a active role in
foreign policy, while probably still being very federal and divided in
some cases in its domestic policy.