Baldev Raj Nayar is currently Emeritus Professor of Political Science at McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of over a dozen scholarly books dealing with international relations, political economy, comparative politics and South Asia. T.V. Paul is Professor of Political Science at McGill University. He also serves as the Director of the University of Montreal-McGill Research Group in International Security (REGIS). His publications include International Order and the Future of World Politics (with John A. Hall, 1999) and the Absolute Weapon Revisited: Nuclear Arms and the Emerging International Order (1998).

• 1. Introduction: India and its search for a major power role; 2. Major power status in the modern world: India in comparative perspective; 3. The constraints on India: international and domestic; 4. India's quest for a major power role under Nehru: the formative grand strategy of a new state, 1947–1964; 5. Strategy in hard times: the long march to building capabilities after Nehru, 1964–1990; 6. After the Cold War: adaptation, persistence, and assertion, 1991–2001; 7. Conclusions: India and the emerging international order.

' … a very good and well-written text. This book can be highly recommended both to undergraduate students of South Asian politics and international relations and to postgraduate students needing a book to set the context for this debate, which is surely one of the most crucial to international security in the early twenty-first century.' International Affairs