The U.S. Presidential Race: Hillary and India

By Alyssa Ayres

April 18, 2015

http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/the-u-s-presidential-race-hillary-and-india/

The recently announced presidential candidate has a deep familiarity with India. 

This post is the first of a series looking at how India and South Asia will feature in the American presidential election of 2016.

Hillary Clinton’s April 12, 2015 presidential campaign launch kicked the U.S. presidential race for 2016 into higher gear. It’s also the first American campaign announcement to garner significant media attention in India. Due to her long history with India—as first lady, a senator, and secretary of state—Clinton is a known quantity in the region and has a clearly articulated policy record on South Asia, unlike other presidential candidates. One Indian paper covered her campaign launch with the headline, “Hillary hearts India.” That background makes it easier to assess how a possible Clinton administration might approach ties with India.

First and foremost, she sees India as a crucial part of U.S. strategy in a world increasingly centered on Asia, where, in her words, “the future of politics will be decided.” As secretary of state her focus on rebalancing U.S. foreign policy toward Asia contained a strong emphasis on expanding ties with India, one of the emerging Asian powers highlighted in her Foreign Policy essay of 2011. This was the essay that referred to “actively support[ing] India’s Look East effort” and talked of India as a “linchpin” of an “economically integrated and politically stable South and Central Asia.”