By Benjamin Giltner
The West remains determined to punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The European Union announced new sanctions in early May. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress approved $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine, an action that follows Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s comment that the United States wanted to weaken Russia. However, not every state is behind the Western effort to isolate and punish Russia.
Besides China, India is one of the more prominent countries to not be on this train. So far, India has abstained from voting on multiple United Nations resolutions condemning Russia. Obviously, the United States does not want India to remain neutral over this conflict, with the White House expressing its displeasure over its neutral stance.
India’s position of neutrality may seem like bad news to the United States. However, India is following the centuries-old thinking of foreign policy known as raison d'etat. What is raison d'etat, and what does India’s practice of it mean for the United States in the long term?
Before detailing how India is applying raison d'etat and its implications for the United States in the Indo-Pacific, it is important to explain where and how raison d'etat came to be. Cardinal Richelieu, the leading figure in the court of French king Louis XIII, was the original mastermind of raison d'etat. Richelieu applied raison d'etat during the Thirty Years’ War, which pitted Protestant kingdoms (namely in northern Europe) against the Catholic Habsburg Empire and Spain. With France being a steadfastly Catholic country, many expected the Ancien Régime to join the other Catholic kingdoms and put down Protestantism in Europe once and for all. However, Richelieu had other plans in mind. As Iskander Rehman describes, the infamous French clergyman recognized that the influence and power of the Habsburg Empire surrounded his country and that France was in a weaker position relative to the other Catholic countries. To get out of this predicament, Richelieu conducted diplomatic ventures with the Protestant countries, and funded proxy allies to fight the Catholic powers. As Henry Kissinger makes apparent in his book, Diplomacy, Richileau’s application of raison d'etat marked the end of the concept known as universalism and marked the beginning of the nation-state and the pursuit of national interests.
This piece was originally published in The National Interest on June 10, 2022. Read more HERE.