Beyond the State: NonState Actors and the Making of Indias Foreign Policy (19802025)

Mainstream analyses of Indian foreign policy have long privileged the state as the primary and often exclusive actor in external affairs. Rooted in realist assumptions and reinforced by the institutional dominance of political leadership and the foreign policy bureaucracy, this reminder has marginalised the role of non-state actors (NSAs) in shaping India’s international behaviour. However, since the 1980s—and with greater intensity following economic liberalisation in the 1990s—India’s foreign policy environment has become increasingly permeated by non-state actors such as diasporic communities, insurgent groups, advocacy networks, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and private economic actors. This paper examines how, when, and through which mechanisms non-state actors have influenced India’s foreign policy between 1980 and 2025. Drawing on constructivist, liberal, and transnational approaches within Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), and employing a comparative case-study methodology with process tracing, the study analyses three domains of non-state influence: diaspora lobbying in India–United States relations, insurgent impact on India’s Sri Lanka policy, and NGO-driven norm diffusion in multilateral diplomacy. The paper argues that non-state influence is conditional rather than absolute, becoming significant where state preferences are contested, legitimacy costs are high, or policy complexity constrains bureaucratic autonomy. By moving beyond a purely statist framework, the study contributes to FPA by conceptualising Indian foreign policy as a negotiated outcome shaped by continuous interaction between state authority and non-state agency.