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<JournalTitle>ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES</JournalTitle>
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<Volume-Issue>Volume 7 Issue 1</Volume-Issue>
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<IssueTopic>Multidisciplinary</IssueTopic>
<IssueLanguage>English</IssueLanguage>
<Season>Apr-May 2026</Season>
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<IssueOA>Y</IssueOA>
<PubDate>
<Year>2026</Year>
<Month>05</Month>
<Day>31</Day>
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<ArticleType>Strategic Studies</ArticleType>
<ArticleTitle>From Inwardness to Interdependence: Connectivity as the Driver of India__ampersandsignrsquo;s Foreign Policy Shift in an Age of Geoeconomics</ArticleTitle>
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<ArticleLanguage>English</ArticleLanguage>
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<FirstPage>99</FirstPage>
<LastPage>122</LastPage>
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<FirstName>Rupam</FirstName>
<LastName>Majumder</LastName>
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<DOI>10.47362/EJSSS.2026.7106</DOI>
<Abstract>India__ampersandsignrsquo;s foreign policy, over the years has undergone gradual yet significant transformations, shaped by domestic priorities and structural shifts in the international system. At the very beginning as a newly independent country, India grappled with the aftermath of partition and a massive wave of displaced population. As a result, India placed more emphasis on integrating territories under its sovereignty, addressing security concerns, and state-led economic development. This nation-building priority produced an inward-looking orientation in which external connectivity remained limited in scale and strategic articulation. During the Cold War period, India took a very measured diplomatic engagement with the outer world and cross-border infrastructural integration got very limited attention in its foreign policy design. After the 1962 Indo-China war and 1965 Indo-Pak war, the peripheral areas were treated as barriers, not as bridges in India__ampersandsignrsquo;s strategic calculation. Though the 1990s liberalisation reforms expanded India__ampersandsignrsquo;s external outreach through initiatives such as the Look East Policy and regional frameworks like SAARC and BIMSTEC, connectivity remained uneven in execution and secondary to broader economic reform priorities. Although a substantial existing literature examines India__ampersandsignrsquo;s connectivity initiatives in its neighbouring countries and beyond, there is very limited work that focuses on the broader shift in India__ampersandsign#39;s foreign policy approach. This paper argues that a substantial transformation came to India__ampersandsignrsquo;s foreign policy design after 2014, where connectivity emerged as a defining driver of its external outreach. By employing qualitative and interpretive methodology based on policy documents, official statements, and secondary scholarly sources, this paper takes a historical analytical approach to trace this transition from boundary-conscious state consolidation to connectivity-led external outreach. The paper concludes that connectivity has become central to the understanding of India__ampersandsignrsquo;s foreign policy shift in an age where influence is exercised increasingly through networks of interdependence rather than traditional geopolitical forces.</Abstract>
<AbstractLanguage>English</AbstractLanguage>
<Keywords>Interdependence, Connectivity, Geoeconomics, Statecraft, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy.</Keywords>
<URLs>
<Abstract>https://www.ejsss.net.in/ubijournal-v1copy/journals/abstract.php?article_id=16258&title=From Inwardness to Interdependence: Connectivity as the Driver of India__ampersandsignrsquo;s Foreign Policy Shift in an Age of Geoeconomics</Abstract>
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