India's foreign policy identity — built on decades of studied neutrality — is being interrogated in print, and Congress MP Dr. Shashi Tharoor wants the country to pay attention. On Friday, 6 November 2026, Tharoor took to X to share his enthusiasm after speaking at the Delhi launch of 'India After Nonalignment: The Quest to Become a Pole in International Politics' by Happymon Jacob, calling it 'an important new book on Indian foreign policy' at what he described as 'a packed event.'

From Belgrade to multipolarity: the debate the book enters

The intellectual stakes here are real. India co-founded the Non-Aligned Movement at the 1961 Belgrade Summit, and for the better part of the Cold War, non-alignment was not merely a policy — it was an identity. The idea was simple and bold: refuse to be anyone's client state. It defined how New Delhi saw itself in the world for three generations.

That architecture has been quietly dismantling itself since the 1990s. What replaced non-alignment is harder to name — 'multi-alignment', 'strategic autonomy', 'issue-based partnerships' — but the direction is unmistakable. India has simultaneously deepened ties with Washington, maintained its relationship with Moscow, courted Quad members, and positioned itself as the voice of the Global South. The core question Jacob's book takes head-on: is India merely a 'swing state' pulled by competing powers, or is it actively assembling the weight to be a pole in its own right?

Happymon Jacob and the book's moment

Happymon Jacob, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, is one of India's most closely watched voices on foreign policy, India-Pakistan ties, and regional security. His entry into the debate on India's strategic positioning carries weight inside the academic and diplomatic community. The launch drew a packed audience in Delhi on a Wednesday evening — a signal, in itself, of how live this conversation is among India's strategic community.

Tharoor, who brings his own formidable foreign-policy résumé as a former UN Under-Secretary-General and former Union Minister of State for External Affairs, was not merely a ceremonial presence at the podium. His endorsement — 'well worth reading' — lands with the credibility of someone who has navigated exactly the multilateral corridors the book maps.

Why this conversation is overdue

The timing is pointed. As India navigates its role in BRICS, the SCO, and ongoing conversations about a reformed UN Security Council, the question of whether New Delhi is a pole or a pivot has moved from seminar rooms to cabinet strategy. A new book that traces the arc from Nehru's non-alignment to contemporary multi-alignment gives policymakers, analysts, and citizens a shared framework for that reckoning.

India's growing strategic ambitions demand a vocabulary — and books like Jacob's supply it. The debate over what India stands for, not just what it balances between, is now well and truly in print.