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US-India relations have traversed vast and uneven terrain to forge a comprehensive strategic partnership today. They have also spanned a wide spectrum of change. The book unravels a range of Washington’s attitudes towards India over half a century, focussing on India’s international territorial conflicts, covering both the Cold War and post Soviet periods. This work attempts an exciting dual level analysis of the dynamic interface between interest, policy and media projections. At one level, the changing global, geopolitical, strategic and domestic compulsions that informed US responses to India’s conflicts with Portugal over Goa, the Chinese aggression and Pakistan’s aggressions in Kutch, Kashmir, and most recently Kargil are examined. They range from Cold War strategic prisms and India’s power status to post-Soviet mutualities spurred by globalization and terror. The revelations are of critical contemporary relevance because while the Cold War ended long back, false narratives entrenched through media imperialism continue. Images need urgent corrective reconstruction as India’s strategic space continues to be sharply compromised. 

Contents: Preface.1. Sourcing US policy: cold war, India and the negative narrative. 2. Media, foreign policy and image. 3. The liberation of Goa: geopolitics, hype and false images. 4. The Chinese aggression: complex interests, arm-twisting and bi-focal images. 5. Pakistan’s aggressions in Kutch and Kashmir: US geo-strategy and media distortions. 6. Kargil: new global dynamics, interests and image reconstruction. Conclusion. Index.