May 17, 5- 6 p.m. Pacific Time
May 18, 5:30 - 6:30 a.m. Indian Standard Time

India has long portrayed itself as having a foreign policy guided by principles of justice. For decades, it stood above the ruthless geopolitics of the Cold War – in word if not in deed – and instead fashioned itself as a champion of decolonization and international equality. Today, with nonalignment apparently passé, several states have begun to embrace feminism and related principles as a basis for a normative, or principled foreign policy. This webinar will examine what a feminist foreign policy would look like for India. In such a foreign policy, how would feminism intersect with other values, such as environmentalism; to what extent would it clash with or reinforce national interests; and does India have the domestic political foundations to sustain such a normative policy?

Panelists

Ms Ambika Vishwanath is the Co-Founder and Director of the Kubernein Initiative, a geopolitical advisory group. Ambika is a geopolitical analyst and water security specialist with experience in the field of governance and foreign policy. She has led Track 2 diplomacy efforts and consulted with several governments and international organizations in the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia, and helped shape their policies in the field of conflict resolution, water diplomacy, and security. At Kubernein, she leads their flagship program on Gender and Indian Foreign Policy and projects on water, climate, and security. The first Indian to be invited as a member of the prestigious Munich Young Leaders Network, she is also a China-India Visiting Scholars Fellow, 2020 – 2021, Ashoka University, and a Non-Resident Fellow with the Agora Institute, Germany.

Moderator

Arzan Tarapore is the South Asia research scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, where he leads the newly-restarted South Asia research initiative. He is also a senior non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research. His research focuses on Indian military strategy and contemporary Indo-Pacific security issues. Prior to his scholarly career, he served as an analyst in the Australian Defense Department. Arzan holds a Ph.D. in war studies from King’s College London. 

 

This event is part of the 2022 Spring webinar series, Negotiating Women's Rights and Gender Equality in Asia, sponsored by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.