Ogden, Christopher. "Tone Shift: India's Dominant Foreign Policy Aims Under Modi". Indian Policy and Politics, Vol.1, No.1 (2018): 3-23.

Ogden, Christopher. "Tone Shift: India's Dominant Foreign Policy Aims Under Modi". Indian Policy and Politics, Vol.1, No.1 (2018): 3-23.

• The election of the BJP in October 2014 marked a watershed in Indian history as it was the first time that a majority government had been elected since that of Rajiv Gandhi in 1984, immediately following his mother's assassination, and the first time that this had ever occurred for an opposition party (4).
• This was a continuation of a pattern that began in 1998 when Atal Bihair Vajpayee completed the first even full term of a non-Congress Prime Minister. Both events mark the transformation of India into a competitive multiparty democracy (4-5).
• The 1998 government of the National Democratic Alliance significantly improved Indian relations with the USA, as well as with China, and increased India's global standing by conducting nuclear tests. The core of Indian foreign policy under this government, led by Prime Minister Vajpayee, was a newfound belief in the strength of India and its determination to become a great power (5).
• The 2014 BJP electoral platform promised to fundamentally transform and reorient Indian foreign policy goals with a new strategic plan (5). 
• The author talks about different theories of IR and justifies their use of constructivist IR theory over realist IR theory in the analysis of Prime Minister Modi's foreign policy goals and achievements on page 5 through page 7.
• The Modi government has been more active in promoting international events, summits, and meetings, seeking to project a more energetic foreign police that the previous government of Manmohan Singh. This new approach has been centered around the figure of Prime Minister Modi (8, 13).
• The Modi government's primary goal has to promote the perception of India as a global power. The rhetoric of the Modi administration has focused on the destiny of India or claims that India has a certain place among the world powers. Core elements of this claim have been references to India's economic power, its independent position in the global order, and its high-tech sector and supposed economic potential (8-9). 
• The Modi government has expanded and intensified its relationship with the USA, believing that the support of the United States will give India the prestige and resources to realize its aspirations of great power status (9-10). These dreams were partially realized under the Obama administration, with India receiving an unprecedented amount of defense cooperation from the USA (10).
• Whereas previous Congress governments have been iffy about their relationships with the USA, mainly due to the rocky history of US-Indian relations, Prime Minister Modi has been unequivocal in his support of the US. This new relationship is allegedly grounded on shared values of democracy, freedom, human rights, and pluralism (10).
• Indian relations with the USA have focused on the role of India as a responsible and democratic partner for the USA in Asia, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. The role of India as an allied democracy in Asia has been stressed in both the Obama and Trump administrations (10-11).
• The BJP envisions international relations through a multipolar lens, imagining that the US, China, Russia, and potentially the EU are great powers, with India certain to join these ranks in the future. As such, India seeks to develop good relations with all other great powers, based around the principles of cooperation, equality, and non-intervention (11).
• This approach to foreign policy represents an abandonment of Indian non-alignment, replacing it instead with alignment towards multiple poles of power. India sees this integration into multiple countries as an important step in fulfilling its rightful place as a great power (11-12).
• As part of this pursuit of ties to multiple spheres of power, India has become a full member of the SCO. It has also played a role in creating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development, demonstrate a new willingness to engage within Asia (13).
• India's successful pursuit of stronger ties with Russia, the USA, China, Australia, and Japan all help India to realize its multipolar diplomatic strategy. In the logic of Indian foreign policy strategists, these moves have helped secure India a place in a future multipolar world (16).
• Prime Minister Modi has strengthened relations with the Putin government in Russia, especially security and defense cooperation. Russia and India both seek the same normative relations, that of equality, non-intervention, and mutually beneficially cooperation, so they get along well (12).
• Indian foreign policy towards China is focused on a shared philosophy of equality and non-intervention, with Prime Minister leverage this commonality in relations. India believes that Chinese and Indian foreign policy should serve common goals since they are both based on these principles (12-13).
• Prime Minister Modi has also been much more willing to threaten military force against China in border disputes along the Himalayas. India has also sought to make allies in Vietnam, Australia, and Japan to undermine Chinese influence. It has also refused to participate in the One Belt-One Road initiative, seeing this as an element of Chinese influence to be opposed (13).
• As an extension of the 'Look East' policy of the Rao government to renew ties with Southeast Asian nations, the Modi government has initiated the 'Act East' policy of connecting the Asia-Pacific region into an economic and security community. This has mainly involved strengthening economic and military ties with Southeast and Pacific countries (14).
• India appears to have assumed dominance in the Indian Ocean, focusing its resources on developing a blue water navy capable to fulfill Indian aspirations to economic and military dominance in the Indian Ocean (14).
• In Southeast Asia, India has focused on economic ties with Singapore, and economic and security ties with Vietnam. It is also negotiating a free trade agreement with ASEAN (14-15).
• India has sought to expand diplomatic, economic, and military ties with Japan, as Prime Minister Modi admires Shinzo Abe's nationalism and has common regional aspirations in the Asia-Pacific region. Similarly, Prime Minister Modi has enhanced security cooperation with Australia and New Zealand, seeing these countries as partner democracies in its vision for the Asia-Pacific region (15-16).
• Indian foreign policy under Prime Minister Modi has not fundamentally changed, but the Modi government represents an intensification of previous Indian foreign policies. Relationships with major powers have been intensified, as has rhetoric about India's world power status and Indian initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region (17).