Will mission moon help India leverage its diplomacy as an influential power-player?

By Sudhanshu Tripathi*
The successful moon landing has made the incredible possible for India. The country has indeed jumped towards a higher orbit of influence and power among global community of sovereign nations. While this rare achievement will in likelihood transform into the country’s increasing cooperation with other space-exploring national agencies in the world, it shall also result into massive economic gains with considerable socio-political prestige of India accompanied by robust boost to the likely prospects of its likely emerging new carved-out of Moon Diplomacy.
Despite being a scientific and technological success in the field of space exploration, the totality of results to calculate in terms of addition to national power for the country is perhaps beyond one’s general perception. Notwithstanding the positive fruitful gains, the accomplishment may possibly witness few adverse consequences due to long-recurring hostile attitudes maintained by China and Pakistan against India. The country had already suffered such adverse consequences by means of several harsh sanctions by the western states led by the US, when it successfully conducted its first nuclear explosion on 18th May 1974 for peaceful purposes.
This spectacular achievement by the country may possibly lead to few unexpected and unpalatable after-effects due to stiff power rivalry in the world as international arena is still perhaps the most unregulated and free-for-all phenomenon where naked power rules the roost, that an illustrious realist scholar of the previous century Hans Morgenthau had sketched in his classic work Power among Nations. The same spirit has further been carried by another contemporary realist scholar John Mearsheimer who has pointed at those structures which inevitably causes tensions between different power players in the world.
As India has now become an influential power-player among few top level power players like the US, Russia and China, it essentially needs to leverage its diplomacy so as to carry on its sincere efforts uninterrupted to further explore the unfathomed areas of knowledge in the overall interest of humanity, either in space or below the surface of the earth or deep inside oceans. In fact, these are the probable areas where humanity can find solace in times to come when rising temperatures, melting glaciers leading to submerging of island-nations, increasing environment pollution, soil erosion, scarcity of water and food resources accompanied by several natural disasters viz. earth quake, heavy downpour, famine and several man-made others will finally turn the earth inhospitable for the human beings.
Hence the ongoing endeavour in search of future hospitable destinations or the required living preconditions for sustenance of the mankind like water or oxygen or fertile soil to name a few must be collectively pursued so that no competitive rivalry may stall such noble pursuit in the common welfare of all. It is here that India can mitigate the possible suspicions among other competing nations through its aforesaid moon diplomacy for forging better friendly and cordial relations by evolving better cooperative endeavours not only in the field of space exploration but also in other fields as above mentioned. This is very much required today by New Delhi as the same mission by a major global power Russia through its spacecraft Luna-25 had unfortunately failed just around three days ago.
As Sino-India tensions and continuing standoff on the international borders between the two asymmetric powers continue to be far away from amicable resolution despite several rounds of bilateral talks at various levels besides hostile relations with Pakistan consistently supporting cross-border terror into India, the so-carved out diplomacy may accrue for New Delhi enough clout and power that may help India balance the fast-risen aggressive, assertion-oriented and imperialist power-profile of China including Pakistan not only in the East but also in all over the world. Hence the likely upcoming deterrent power of India through the moon diplomacy can considerably help boost its image vis-à-vis Beijing and Islamabad both. And that will indeed benefit the global humanity. This can happen as nothing is beyond human endeavour.
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Dept. Political Science, MDPG College, Pratapagarh (UP)

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