India and the United Nations

Abstract

To paraphrase the mantra of realism—international politics, like all politics, is a struggle for normative ascendancy: the establishment and maintenance of the dominant normative architecture of international order created and maintained by the interplay of power and ideas. As China, India and Brazil emerge as important growth centres in the world economy, the age of the West and its disrespect for the role, relevance and voice of the rest of the world is passing. As power and influence seep out of the trans-Atlantic order and migrate towards Asia and elsewhere, how, and by whom, will the transition from the Westphalian to a replacement system of world affairs be managed? Conversely, how will the newly empowered big players of the global South manage the transformation from being perennial spoilers to becoming responsible globalisers?