Domestic politics and India's foreign policy making in the Sino-Indian territorial dispute (1959-1962)

Foreign policy making is inherently a political process. To understand how and why domestic politics affect foreign policy making, we must analyse the deliberations and roles of domestic actors. More specifically, the relative weight of the actors' preferences, the nature of information flow and the perceptions and tactics of political leaders will largely determine whether these entangled considerations and roles compromise the balance between domestic and international factors. Using this analytical framework, this article shows that in the territorial dispute between China and India from 1959 to 1962, domestic politics deeply influenced the Nehru Government's border policy and negotiations with China. Fundamentally, the analytical framework deployed in this article is a useful paradigm for understanding the dynamic interactions between domestic politics and foreign policy making.