This book attempts to understand the phenomenological basis of a specific, observed fact in Indian foreign policy – the idealist inflection. As previously outlined, working with strategic culture (the locus of the phenomenology in foreign policy) requires that the persistence of its key traits is investigated over time. The traits, as identified in the preceding chapter, are – the notion of moral greatness, the notion of political greatness and the conflation of ideals and interests. The persistence of these traits in the thoughts of the current strategic elite are analysed using the results of interviews.

Whilst under Nehru, Indian foreign policy could easily be pinned down to him personally and to his own views and writings, the India of today presents a much more complex picture. Congress has since lost its dominant position. No leader as incontestable and powerful, experienced, cosmopolitan and visionary in terms of foreign policy has emerged since Nehru's death. (No such leader, it may be argued, is needed in a functioning democracy.) Despite various efforts, India has not yet developed an institutional and intellectual architecture for a solid long-term national foreign policy strategy to guide and underpin the decisions of successive governments. The picture is, thus, much more scattered. There is an awe-inspiring multiplicity of often very well reasoned and argued views, voiced by the current strategic community.