Can India Be Friends with Everyone?

🧠 The Brain Bar presents

“Can India Be Friends with Everyone?”

A conversation on power, diplomacy, and how India navigates a world of shifting alliances.

📅 Saturday, 5th September | 🕕 6 PM onwards

📍 Thrive Cafe, Jubilee Hills

For decades, India’s foreign policy was shaped by a simple idea: non-alignment.

But the world has changed.

The Cold War is over. Global power is no longer divided neatly into two camps. The US and China are competing for influence, Russia remains a crucial partner, the Global South is gaining significance, and India finds itself at the intersection of all these relationships.

So where does India stand?

Today, India speaks of strategic autonomy, multi-alignment, and multi-vector engagement - building relationships with different countries without necessarily choosing one side.

But can you really be friends with everyone when your friends aren't friends with each other?

How does India balance its relationships with major global powers while pursuing its own interests?

And when diplomacy intersects with technology, trade, oil, economics, and a complex neighbourhood, how much room does India really have to stay independent?

About the Session:

Led by political scientist Dr. S. Shaji, this session explores:

• How India's foreign policy has evolved from non-alignment to multi-alignment

• What strategic autonomy means in a world of competing powers

• How India navigates relationships with major regional and global actors

• The role of economics, technology transfer, and oil trade in shaping international relations

• Why India's complex neighbourhood continues to influence its foreign policy

• What India's growing role as an emerging power from the Global South means for its place in the world

This isn't a conversation about picking sides.

It's about understanding how a country navigates a world where everyone has competing interests - including India.

About the Speaker:

Dr. S. Shaji is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hyderabad, where he teaches courses including India in World Affairs, International Relations of Emerging Powers, and Government and Politics of South Asia.

His research interests span International Relations and Public Policy, with a particular focus on India's relations with developing states, especially across the Afro-Asian region, technology transfer, and the international relations of emerging powers. His work also examines the changing relationships between India and the Afro-Asian world, alongside the policy trajectories of emerging powers such as China, Brazil, and South Africa.

Dr. Shaji has also been a guest professor at the University of Würzburg, Germany, and a SUSI Foreign Policy Fellow at Bard College, New York, USA.

About The Brain Bar:

The Brain Bar is a series of intimate, idea-driven gatherings hosted in cafes and bars where complex ideas are explored through engaging, discussion-led conversations. It's where you come not just to listen, but to think, question, and see the world a little differently.

If you've ever wondered how India manages to sit at multiple tables in a world that increasingly wants everyone to pick a side - this one's for you.