Description
The diffusion of power in the twenty-first century has unsettled established alliance structures and reignited debates on strategic autonomy. This paper conceptualises strategic hedging as a dynamic analytical framework to explain how states, especially India and other “swing states” in the Indo-Pacific, navigate uncertainty in a competitive and fluid global environment. Drawing on Glenn Snyder’s alliance dilemma, neoclassical realism, and Global South perspectives on autonomy, the study contends that hedging functions simultaneously as a behavioural instrument and a normative response to systemic transformation. Using India’s parallel participation in the Quad, BRICS+, and the Global South platforms as an illustrative case, the paper advances the idea of “layered autonomy,” a multidimensional strategy combining pragmatic flexibility with normative independence. By integrating Western alliance theory with post-Western strategic thought, it develops a typology of hedging that highlights emerging patterns of agency, adaptation, and order-making in an evolving multiplex world order. The paper concludes that multi-alignment is neither contradictory nor opportunistic but a rational, adaptive, and value-oriented approach for states seeking stability and strategic relevance amid global flux. It thus calls for a renewal of alliance theory and broader theoretical innovation within International Studies to better interpret the complex behaviour of middle and swing powers in the Indo-Pacific.
Keywords: Strategic autonomy, hedging, India, multipolarity, Indo-Pacific, Global
