NEOCONSERVATISM: A THREAT TO INDIA BUT DIALOGUE NEEDED WITH ITS PROPONENTS

It is fine for those such as Jeffrey Sachs, leading expert in global affairs and Ivy league, Columbia University professor to dismiss neoconservatives as arrogant.

- PETER DASH

And to add that they are full of hubris and even that neocons advocate simply for they and their allies to dominate the world for the pure sake of US and its allies’ selfish interests. And he may be right to a degree.

But I argue here that as Robert McNamara, former US defence Secretary overseeing the Vietnam War presented in his documentary the “Fog of War”. That trying to show empathy and understanding of the “enemy” can be positive in reducing conflict with it and finding a better way to end conflict. This concept can be also applied to neoconservatism. I will try to do as such. For it is US led neoconservatism often seen as an ideologically driven approach by the West, too often applied to the Global South that has destabilized countries there, impacted negatively the Ukraine war and has had less than stellar impact on India’s economy by its overlap with neocolonialism. Thus, we really need to truly better understand neoconservatives to fashion a thorough and effective counter response and better dialogue with them to reduce global risks from economic meltdown to nuclear war - all very bad for India.

Firstly, in more detail what is this ideology? According to Wikipedia, “Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and counterculture of the 1960s. Neoconservatives typically advocate the unilateral promotion of democracy and interventionism in international relations together with a militaristic and realist (so -called, I add ) philosophy of “peace through strength “