, India now speaks as a confident global player—a voice shaped by decades of both practical experience and rigorous academic inquiry.
Before Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar became India’s most recognizable and assertive External Affairs Minister, before he navigated the complexities of the Indo-Pacific and the post-Ukraine war world order, he was a scholar. His PhD thesis, titled “Deterrence in Regional Contexts: Nuclear India and Its Challenges,” completed at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the late 1980s, serves not merely as an academic credential but as the foundational blueprint of his strategic worldview. The thesis offers a critical lens to understand his later diplomatic actions, particularly his emphasis on pragmatic realism, multi-alignment, and the nuanced management of nuclear-armed adversaries. This essay argues that Jaishankar’s PhD thesis was a prescient work that moved beyond abstract nuclear theory to ground deterrence in the specific, volatile realities of South Asia, thereby shaping the core tenets of his contemporary foreign policy. s jaishankar phd thesis
He has noted that his doctoral studies provided the foundation for his professional responsibilities at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) , particularly in understanding geopolitical negotiation and nuclear strategy. Recognition , India now speaks as a confident global
While the original hardbound copy resides in the JNU library archives, digitized versions are occasionally available through the Shodhganga repository (INFLIBNET) under Jawaharlal Nehru University’s electronic theses section. His PhD thesis, titled “Deterrence in Regional Contexts:
He argued that you cannot understand India’s foreign policy without a synthesis of both.