(a) Discuss the relevance of the normative ethos of the Non-Aligned Movement in magnifying India's soft power in pursuit of her…

Normative Ethos of NAM, Soft Power, and National Interest

The normative architecture of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)—rooted in Panchsheel, anti-hegemonism, and South-South solidarity—continues to serve as a foundational pillar for projecting India’s soft power - Joseph Nye's term (1990) for the ability to attract rather than coerce. Nehru's role at Bandung (1955) and Belgrade (1961), and India's chairing of NAM after the New Delhi summit of 1983, built a reputation as a principled voice of the decolonised world. Rather than becoming obsolete after the Cold War, this normative ethos has transitioned into a policy of strategic autonomy and dynamic multi-alignment. India leverages this moral authority and diplomatic credibility to position itself as a bridge between the East and West, as well as the leading voice for developing nations. Contemporary initiatives like Vaccine Maitri and the hosting of the Voice of the Global South Summit during India’s G20 Presidency illustrate how NAM’s normative roots enhance India's global prestige.

Crucially, this soft power is directly tethered to hard national interests. It expands India’s strategic maneuvering space amidst intensifying great-power rivalry between the United States and China. High diplomatic credibility aids energy security by allowing diversified partnerships across West Asia, Russia, and the West without ideological entrapment. Furthermore, South-South solidarity secures vital market access and coalition-building power in multilateral forums, enabling India to present an attractive, non-coercive developmental model that effectively counters China’s expanding footprint in the developing world. The limits are real, however: India's leaders have skipped NAM summits since 2016, and partnerships such as the Quad sit uneasily with the movement's founding creed, so the ethos is used selectively as a resource rather than followed as a doctrine.

Functionalist Approach to Peace and Global Order

Functionalism, pioneered by David Mitrany in A Working Peace System (1943), argues that international peace is best achieved not through overarching political federations, but through transnational cooperation in specific technical, economic, and humanitarian areas ("form follows function"). By depoliticising contentious issues and focusing on pragmatic, shared human needs, functionalism fosters habits of collaboration that gradually erode sovereign rivalries.

Neo-functionalists, notably Ernst Haas (The Uniting of Europe, 1958) and Philippe Schmitter, expanded this framework through the concept of the "spillover effect," where technical integration in one sector creates functional and political pressures for integration in adjacent sectors. In global politics, this logic underpins the evolution of the European Union from a coal and steel community to a comprehensive political-economic bloc. Similarly, functional cooperation within ASEAN specialized bodies and the technical governance of agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demonstrate how functional institutions maintain order, prevent conflict escalation, and sustain global public goods even during periods of high geopolitical friction; the Indus Waters Treaty worked through three India-Pakistan wars before India held it in abeyance in April 2025. The approach has limits: Stanley Hoffmann argued that the nation-state is "obstinate" rather than obsolete in "high politics", integration can "spill back", as Brexit showed, and functional bodies are themselves politicised when great powers clash.

Myanmar’s Crisis and Regional Security

The February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, marked by the detention of State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and the violent suppression of democratic protests, has escalated into a protracted civil war between the Tatmadaw, the National Unity Government (NUG), and diverse Ethnic Armed Organisations. This political collapse and humanitarian catastrophe have generated severe transnational security challenges across South and Southeast Asia.

Regionally, the conflict has driven tens of thousands of refugees into India's border states - more than 30,000, mostly Chin, in Mizoram alone - and into Manipur, straining local infrastructure and exacerbating delicate internal demographic and ethnic tensions. The collapse of central authority in Myanmar has also created safe havens for Indian insurgent groups, including factions of the NSCN and ULFA, while revitalising illicit arms and narcotics networks in the Golden Triangle - Myanmar has become the world's largest source of opium - and cyber-fraud compounds on the Thai border that have trafficked workers, including Indians. The armed resistance's gains since Operation 1027 (October 2023), including the Arakan Army's control of most of Rakhine through which the Kaladan project runs, have fragmented the country further, while the unresolved Rohingya crisis keeps about a million refugees in Bangladesh. Furthermore, the crisis has exposed institutional limitations within regional architecture, as ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus has failed to halt violence or restore constitutional order, and the junta's phased election from December 2025 was widely dismissed as lacking credibility.

Way Forward

The contemporary international landscape underscores the constant tension between normative foreign policy commitments—such as human rights and democratic values—and functional, realist imperatives. For India, managing relations with Myanmar requires balancing democratic principles with vital functional priorities, including border security and the preservation of key connectivity infrastructure such as the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project. Moving forward, sustaining regional order requires combining normative credibility with pragmatic functional cooperation, ensuring that diplomatic engagement addresses ground realities while incrementally building durable frameworks for regional stability.