The Eagle and the Elephant: Strategic Aspects of US-India Economic Engagement

The Eagle and the Elephant shows how economic engagement directly affects how the United States cooperates with India on strategic issues. Through case studies of major efforts, including civil nuclear cooperation, services outsourcing, antiterrorism, and electricity generation and the environment, Raymond E. Vickery Jr. presents both successful and unsuccessful instances of complex collaborations between the two nations.

Vickery draws on his own experience in the Commerce Department and as an economic consultant. Buttressed by information from official sources, journalistic accounts, and interviews, he offers new insight into the interplay of legislative and executive branch officials, policy proponents, business and nonprofit organizations, and activists.

Vickery explores how the United States employs commercial diplomacy as only one component of an overall economic engagement in the formation and implementation of foreign policy. This interaction, Vickery argues, has the potential to increase intergovernmental confidence and cooperation in areas vital to both countries and to world security and peace.