New Delhi, Dec. 8 -- India's Closest Strategic Partners brings together not only the doctrines at play but also the variegated dynamics of seven of India's valuable friends to illuminate the opportunities and challenges facing India as a rising power.

He explains the intricacies of India's vital bilateral partnerships with Japan, Australia, the US, Russia, France, Israel and the UAE. The title, Friends, and the author's usage of Kautilya's characterization of friendships in the epigraph are intriguing. Can two countries be friends the way two individuals can be? Chaulia draws parallels, pointing out that a strategic partnership is akin to a live-in relationship and that an alliance evokes the exclusivity and commitments of a marriage. St...