C. Raja Mohan is Director, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, and the consulting editor on foreign affairs for 'The Indian Express'. Before his association with The Indian Express began in 2004, Raja Mohan worked for The Hindu as its Washington correspondent and Strategic Affairs Editor. He was a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. In his academic avatar, Raja Mohan has been professor of South Asian Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. As a think tanker, he worked at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is on the editorial board of various international affairs journals and is affiliated with the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore; the Lowy Institute, Sydney; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC. He is the author, most recently, of Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific.
The Trump retrenchment: Invitation for India to adopt a vigorous strategy in Afghanistan
India must take on larger responsibilities for regional security. There is no reason why India would want to turn down this invitation
In his outburst ridiculing the role of US friends and partners in Afghanistan last week, President Donald Trump got the history of the country and the region all wrong. The editorial board of the ‘The Wall Street Journal’, which generally supports Trump, called the comment “slander against allies” and said it cannot recall “a more absurd misstatement of history by an American President”.
That, however, is unlikely to make an impression on the US President. For, his comments are consistent with the concerns that Trump has repeatedly articulated during his presidential campaign and ever since he occupied the White House. They can be summed up in one simple question: Why is the US fighting a war thousands of miles away when the conflict in Afghanistan has far greater consequences for its neighbours?
Talking about the Indian role, Trump had said, “I get along very well with India and Prime Minister Modi. But he is constantly telling me he built a library in Afghanistan. Library! That’s, like, five hours of what we spend (in Afghanistan)”. It is no surprise that Trump’s gripe has drawn much outrage in India. Here again, facts are not really important to Trump’s argument.
When the leader of the world’s most powerful nation is afflicted by victimhood, there is not much anyone can do. The idea that other nations are “taking advantage” of America is central to Trump’s worldview. That this conviction, right or wrong, is shaping foreign and security policies of the Trump Administration must necessarily be an important part of the strategic calculus of other nations, including India.
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