Beyond with US or against US

Context: Major implications of a paradigm shift in the United States (US) foreign policy on India.

Analysing the changes in the foreign policy of the US

• No longer based on the antiquated friend-or-foe classification: under which transgressions by a "friend" or an "ally" were overlooked if the country was helpful to US self-interests.
  • A country's stance on an issue — trade, climate change, security, or human rights — is the categorising principle and not the country.
  • Competition, cooperation, and confrontation can all characterise the US's bilateral engagement.
  • For example, the trade will involve competition while climate change and pandemics will necessitate cooperation, while the human rights and national security issues could be confrontational.
• Change in character of "smart sanctions": Directed both against the countries and against individuals, firms, and institutions for alleged transgressions.
  • For E.g. The Magnitsky Accountability Act of 2012, targeted those involved in the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
  • Use of secondary sanctions: i.e. US residents also cannot transact with third parties who have relationships with the sanctioned persons.
  • Intricate system of monitoring of sanctions: through various bodies like the Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security.

Impact on India:

• Countries are no longer designated as adversaries or allies. Instead, the engagement is multifaceted across trade, intellectual property rights, climate change, security, terrorism, and, importantly, human rights, with limited trade-off across them.
• Whether cooperation, competition, or confrontation dominates the nature of the engagement will depend on the specifics, not whether India is a friend or a foe of the US.