India and the Future of World Order: A Conversation with T.V. Paul

CONFLICTED

Message Heard

History, Religion & Spirituality

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on Conflicted, Thomas is joined by T.V. Paul, Distinguished James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University. Prof. Paul is one of the world’s leading thinkers in international relations and author of Restraining Great Powers: Soft Balancing from Empires to the Global Era and The Unfinished Quest: India’s Search for Major Power Status from Nehru to Modi. In this wide-ranging conversation, Thomas speaks with Prof. Paul about: India’s strategy as a rising power in a shifting multipolar world How ‘soft balancing’ works as an alternative to military alliances The benign and malign dimensions of American hegemony Why globalization both empowered and destabilized the global middle class India’s complex status anxiety and its quest for recognition How China and India navigate rivalry, nationalism, and regional threats The future of the liberal international order—and whether it can survive What a new global settlement might require from the West, China, and India alike Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm/ Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:51.6	Welcome back, dear listeners, Thomas Small, back with you for another conflicted conversation.
0:58.7	I'm sure you know that on conflicted, we've been obsessed with the tectonic shifts that have been unsettling the world order for over the last decade or so.
1:08.6	The old rules, the old alliances, they don't seem as reliable as they used to.
1:15.1	But working out precisely what is going to happen next and how the international or so-called Atlantic world order will adapt to our new multipolar reality,
1:26.5	that's a big question that we're always trying to answer
1:29.0	unconflicted. And I'm hoping my guest today will be able to help us by turning our attention
1:35.1	to a country we too often ignore on the show, India. TV Paul is professor of international
	...

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