By Akhilesh Pillalamarri
What does India’s recent use of force in Myanmar tell us about its power status?
It has been said that to be treated like a king, one ought to act like a king. For a country to be treated like a great power, it must act like a great power, and that requires a bit of throwing your weight around—though any wise statesman should know the limitations of their nations’ capacities and not get carried away by hubris. Interventionism for the sake of interventionism—policing the world, exporting governmental ideologies, and building nations halfway around the world—is idealism at its worst. But realism at its best is when great powers take necessary actions to bolster their interests in relevant areas, especially in their own neighborhoods.
It is natural for great powers to have their own variations of the “Monroe Doctrine,” whether (or however) articulated or not, and this is nothing to be ashamed about. Although John Kerry claimed that the Monroe Doctrine was dead back in 2013, nobody really believes that and it is obvious that the United States will unapologetically pursue its interests in the Western Hemisphere. Former Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in 2010 that “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that’s just a fact.” Today, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran are actively intervening in their neighbors for the sake of their interests. That is why India’s recent military foray into Myanmar is to be praised as being the appropriate response for a state that styles itself as relevant and powerful as India does.
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