By itself, hypocrisy is harmless. And the greater the power, the more brazen the simultaneous emphasis on morality and the naked pursuit of self-interest. Hypocrisy, however, is a problem when it becomes ingrained in a nation’s strategic culture and stops it from adapting to changed circumstances.

For many a generation, the Indian establishment desperately sought to prevent outsiders from intruding on our sovereign space. As a nuclear weapon power with a trillion dollar economy, India now begins to impinge on the rest of the world. In the past India was a mere victim of an international order over which it had no control. What India now needs is a national security mindset that corresponds with its emergence as a system-shaping power.

The writer is a professor at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore