Nehru's Bandung: Non-Alignment and Regional Order in Indian Cold War Strategy [Hardcover]

The history of an Indian vision for Asian peace, driven by the energy of Prime Minister Nehru and the pressures of the early Cold War.This book sheds light on a neglected aspect of India's Cold War diplomacy, starting with the role of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Congress government in organizing the first Asian-African Conference in Bandung in April 1955. Andrea Benvenuti shows how, in the early Cold War, Nehru seized the opportunity accorded by the conference to transcend growing international tensions and pursue an alternative vision: a neutralized Asian area of peace, underpinned by a code of conduct based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence.Relying on Indian, Western and Chinese archival sources,Nehru's Bandungfocuses on the policy concerns and calculations, as well as the international factors, that drove a skeptical Nehru to support Indonesia's diplomatic push for such a gathering. It reveals how, in Nehru's estimation, Bandung also served a further important purpose--securing China's commitment to peaceful coexistence, without which stability in Asia would be illusory.Nehru's support for an Asian-African conference did not derive from an emotional commitment to Afro-Asian internationalism. Instead, it stemmed from a desire to promote a 'third way' in an increasingly polarized world, and to forge a stable regional order--one that would enhance India's external security and domestic prosperity.AcknowledgementsGuide to Transliteration and NamesNote on Indian NomenclatureList of AbbreviationsList of Key PolicymakersIntroduction1. India and the Cold War2. The Indochina Crisis3. The Colombo Conference4. The Nehru-Zhou Enlai Talks5. Entrenching Peaceful Coexistence6. Towards an Afro-Asian Conference7. Nehru's Visit to China8. The Bogor Conference9. The Bandung Conference10. Bandung's Aftermath11. EpilogueConclusionsNotesSelected BibliographyIndexAndrea Benvenuti is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations als`