Can we use today's geopolitical chaos to uplift India's economy?

Successful economies have geopolitics to thank, but India may be letting its opportunity slip away

- DIVA JAIN

Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. -Petyr 'Littlefinger' Baelish

The previous part of this article discussed how many economic miracles have been midwifed amid the chaos of global geopolitics. Several such examples exist. Both South Korea and Taiwan have been described as miracle economies. These countries rose like phoenixes from the ashes of destruction.

What is not discussed all that much is the role played by their patron state, America, in boosting their rise. In an exhaustively researched book, Geopolitics and Globalization, noted political scientist Baldev Raj Nayar notes that both these miracle economies were herded towards high growth rates by an indulgent America that was keen to use them as its first line of defense against communism in the Asia-Pacific. In the 1950s, American aid to South Korea was 15% of its GDP, five-sixths of its exports and 80% of gross capital formation.