Friends with Benefits: Indian-American History
By Seema Sirohi
Harper Collins, 2023
Friends with Benefits: Indian-American History, by Indian journalist Seema Sirohi, is both a historical book and a journalistic memoir. It chronicles the remarkable evolution of U.S.-India relations – from antagonists to partners – under five American presidents and three Indian prime ministers. With India and the United States: distant democracies, published in 1994, Dennis Kux, a retired American diplomat, wrote a history of the complex and difficult relations between the two countries. He had underlined the anomaly of the too often conflictual nature of their interactions during nine successive American presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George Bush. Seema Sirohi begins where he left off and recounts the reverse evolution of their relationship from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden.
India emerged from the Cold War on the wrong side of history, but it is determined to change course and move closer to the United States. It took a little longer for Washington to sense the change and begin to behave accordingly. Perhaps more than any other, Bill Clinton’s presidency embodies the transformation of American policy towards India. The relationship moved from open hostility to enthusiastic rapprochement. The author, however, makes it very clear that India’s policies have changed much less than those of the United States. Throughout Bill Clinton’s first term and most of his second term, the issues of Pakistan and non-proliferation were the driving force of relations. American misunderstanding of South Asia’s political and security dynamics, reminiscences of past Cold War alliances, and highly effective lobbying by Pakistan have placed resolution of the Kashmir issue at the center of politics. American in South Asia.
Indian nuclear tests in 1998, soon followed by those of Pakistan, exacerbated tensions. Sanctions against India have been brutal. The American refusal to consider, against all evidence, Pakistan-China nuclear collusion. Chinese economic considerations played a more important role than Pakistan’s in this state of affairs, although the quality of Islamabad’s diplomacy played a part. It took no less than the Kargil War in 1999 for Bill Clinton to change course and reconsider US relations with Pakistan and India. Kargil opened the eyes of many Americans to broader engagement with an India whose economy was slowly but effectively becoming larger and therefore more attractive. The nuclear tests themselves, however, convinced the US administration that India could no longer be ignored. A series of subsequent discussions between Strobe Talbott and Jaswant Singh paved the way for a rapprochement. According to Sirohi, the China issue was also becoming more important, but somewhat ambivalent, with the United States consumed by Clinton’s desire to economically associate with Beijing, which would soon join the WTO.
This rapprochement first took on meaning in 2000, at the turn of the century, with the first visit by an American president to India since Jimmy Carter. India’s foreign policy is entering a new era. It was, however, under new President George W. Bush that relations flourished, aided greatly during the first term by Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and the September 11 attacks on the United States, which suddenly and considerably increased the convergence of interests of the United States. with India. The gradual separation operated by the American administration between its policies in Pakistan and India, officially announced in 2005 but initiated under Bush’s first term, has enabled more ambitious policies, articulated around the idea that India could play a more important role in the emerging country. twenty first century.
These policies came to fruition during Bush’s second term with the civil nuclear agreement between the United States and India. Announced in 2005, it gave rise to a formidable administrative battle in Washington that reversed, for India alone, decades of non-proliferation policies, leading to a complete paradigm shift in the relationship. However, it took a lot of persuasion to convince Indian leaders to approve the project. The relationship emerged transformed from the Bush era, firmly anchored in new and spectacular popular support in both countries. The perspective offered here by Seema Sirohi particularly reflects the old perspective of India, one of the few countries where George Bush was still popular despite the war in Iraq.
On the other hand, Sirohi presents the relationship under Barack Obama as a step backwards. Soon after Obama’s election, India-US relations seemed to have returned to the bad old days. The administration’s initial rhetoric reverted to pro-Pakistan rhetoric in Washington, trade difficulties multiplied and scandals flourished. Individual factors also played a role, starting with the complex and strong personalities of actors such as Richard Holbrooke and John Kerry, whose undeniable talents seemed to go hand in hand with an equal ignorance of South Asian realities. Meanwhile, despite his personal sympathy for Manmohan Singh, Barack Obama has not really invested in relations with India. With the coming to power of Narendra Modi, which the author welcomes, a new actor has emerged, deeply aware of the structural weaknesses of his country but determined to take advantage of the American system to help change the situation. Once again, China helped preserve relations. Military cooperation has progressed, although centered on the question of Beijing.
If the Obama presidency was a time of relative stagnation for India-US relations, things were about to change in a rather bizarre way. In the succession of American presidents and their relations with India, as presented by Sirohi, Donald Trump is a paradox. His personal state of mind was probably the most alien – even radically opposed – to anything India could imagine. Yet his presidency was generally seen as positive for relations with India. New Delhi was served by circumstances, smart diplomacy and the cooperation of a few knowledgeable people within the US administration. Unlike the situation under Clinton, the Pakistan factor, now aggravated by Afghanistan, was no longer mitigated by the need to convince China to join the WTO. On the contrary, the tariff war with Beijing has only made the latter’s alliance with Pakistan, as well as the latter’s duplicity in Afghanistan, more difficult to swallow. Of course, Trump couldn’t resist repeatedly attacking India over its tariff policies. However, smart and knowledgeable advisors within the NSC managed to offset the US president’s unsophisticated and ill-considered outbursts, while Indian diplomats shrewdly used Trump’s family and romantic ties to influence him. Thus, the Trump presidency turned out to be a net benefit for India.
As Joe Biden’s first term comes to an end, the relationship appears to have reached a plateau. India and the United States are no longer separate. This relationship is not even comparable to the situation that prevailed at the beginning of the Clinton era. Yet this remains somewhat uncertain. The misunderstandings of the past have disappeared, but new difficulties have arisen. As the two countries continue to congratulate each other and highlight their democratic convergence, current Indian political trends are increasingly worrying India’s friends. As the author states, “the question of shared values and human rights could create new tensions” (p. 461). Strategic convergence on China remains the main glue between the two countries, but political dynamics on both sides could once again strain relations.
Friends with benefits offers an interesting insight into New Delhi’s diplomacy. Indian diplomats and politicians learned to play the American political system much more quickly than their American counterparts learned the Indian system. The book highlights the malleability of an American political system, constantly torn between competing interest groups and influences, and unclear about the reality of a world it claims to control. But it also highlights the decisive role of American presidents in foreign policy. Relations with India changed under Clinton and flourished under Bush because both men were personally involved and particularly active. It stabilized under their successors because they demonstrated a relative lack of self-interest despite a public appearance to the contrary.
The book also provides a very accurate description of Narendra Modi’s foreign policy. In substance, the Indian Prime Minister is resolutely following in the footsteps of his predecessors, who largely defined the contours of India’s foreign policy after 1992. But he has also shown himself capable of remarkably innovative tactics while playing skillfully with the American system and its leadership. In doing so, he has managed to blur the perception of his regime, whose values are questionable, with a resolutely modern narrative about the economy, technology and strategic proximity to the United States.
For those interested in the history of the bilateral relationship, Friends with Benefits: Indian-American History is a mine of information and full of ideas and anecdotes. Sirohi’s perception and understanding, his enthusiasm, his disillusionment and his occasional indignation can be felt throughout the book. However, they never take precedence over a story that she witnessed but which was also her story. However, biases are not completely absent either. The account of the history of the United States and India is written from an Indian perspective and the author does not always hide his inclinations. The book would have been better served by broader and deeper contextualization. The constraints of an established global superpower inevitably differ from those of a then-emerging power, but have not been adequately considered. This lack of objectivity – which should not be confused with a lack of honesty – however adds to the interest of the book. The author’s discreet but constant presence and her sense of humor also make it an enjoyable and effortless read. In the long litany of publications on India and the United States, Friends with Benefits: Indian-American History It stands out. It is, by all accounts, a must-read book.
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