Recession in economics Essay

Recession in economics is generally used to refer to a situation at which a nation’s gross domestic product has sustained a negative growth. The use of generally is due to the fact that different economists can describe recession in different ways. The agency responsible for declaring a nation’s economy is at a state of recession is mainly the NBER other wise the National Bureau of Economic Research. It has been argued that the normal recession occurs when the natural growth rate of is less than two percent in average and it lasts virtually over one year. There have emerged various debates concerning the causes of recessions however, the generally agreed cause of recession is mainly by the actions taken with an aim at controlling the supply of money in the economy. The Federal Reserve is mandated with the responsibility to maintain the balance between money supply, inflation and interest rates. The moment the balance is lost in this equation,the economy can run out of control forcing itself to balance. This is exactly was experienced by many nations in the year 2007. The Federal Reserve monetary policy injected significant amount of money supply in the money market. This kept the interest rate low while at the same time the rate of inflation continued to rise. This together with relaxed policies that govern the lending practices made borrowing of money easy thus the economic activities became unsustainable and consequently leading to the economy coming to a stand still. Other minor factors that cause the economic recessions could be the presence of wars or the increase of oil prices. They are however, short term and correct themselves in a faster way. A recession can always be spotted before it occurs. It is possible to oversee an economic scale changing especially in quarters coming before the actual onset. Some these signs may include,high levels of unemployment, decline in stock market, decline in housing prices and lack of foreign investment among many other factors. A global recession is generally a significant fall of economic activity that is spread across the world’s economy. It should last more than three months and is usually more visible in a nation’s gross domestic product, industrial production, real income in addition to wholesale and retail sales among others. Recessions normally starts immediately after the economy has reached a peak of activities and comes to an end as the economy reaches its trough. It is involved with simultaneous declines and falling of commodity prices otherwise called deflation. Alternatively, it may be a sharp rise of commodity prices also called inflation mostly in a process called stagflation. A severe recession may be referred to as economic depression. Global recession usually is estimated to occur over a cycle that may last between eight to ten years. It has been said that during the last three decades, the world per capita output growth has been either none or negative. Most of the global nations have been affected by the recession both the developed and the developing nations. If nations like the US, UK and Australia among other nations can feel the pinch,what about the poor countries in the developing world? The recession of the early year 2000 was mostly felt in western nations. It affected the European Union during the year 2000 and 2001 as well as the US in the year 2002 and year 2003. Countries like Australia and Canada avoided the recession for the better part of the time. Russia began to prosper while Japan continued with its 1990s recession. This recession did not meet the economists by by surprise. They had predicted it following the 1990s boom which had the experiences of both low unemployment and low inflation. In the United States of America, the recession was took the form of large layoffs and outsourcing in addition to formally highly paid employees who are being coerced into less paid service positions. In answering the Alan Greenspan question, it is actually becoming clear that Europe is not an exception of the global recession. The previous confidence enjoyed by the UK housing market has fallen especially in march to the lowest point in the last three decades. Other countries like Ireland and Spain have housing markets that have fallen over the last decade to the earth. There is a prediction that these and other nations might possibly experience a wholesale collapse. Once the housing markets more so in eastern Europe as well as Baltic estates are experiencing a significant cooling,the western European have now stopped buying properties places like Estonia, Warsaw and other places. In southern China and in India,the prices are no more surging. The stock markets have experienced sharp down fall after reaching high levels thus people do not have money to buy what they want vivid example is the slowing down of sale of apartments in Hong Kong which is usually a very hyper active market. Britain have had one of the most robust housing markets in Europe with little of an oversupply than in Spain. According to Alan Greenspan who was the former chairman of Federal Reserve said that global recession might create backlashes that might force nations to retreat from the worldwide markets. This decade’s early years global recession have had little effects on the Eastern and Central Europe’s export markets. The first phase of the financial gloom spared this region which affected the initial public offerings, acquisitions and mergers. It also experienced a few multinationals scrapping projects and cancelling of planned investments in addition to scaling back the oversees expansion. A study conducted by Vienna Institute of Economic studies in year 2003 showed that the FDI flows to the nations of central Europe were halved in the first three months of year 2002 in spite of their well grounded and looming European Union membership. During the years 1999 to 2003,there were frequent delays in export transactions. Privatization also attracted little interest. It is of no doubt that Europe is headed for a recession.

Lisa Delpit

Fortunately or unfortunately, in the modern materialistic civilization deeply impacted by the industrial and internet revolutions, education and career are linked emphatically and inseparably.   The real purpose of education is lost somewhere. The essence of education is the transmission of knowledge, to mold noble human beings. More education can help the individual and the society only if it produces more wisdom. Education is not mere training; it is something more than it; it is not mere acquiring knowledge; it is something more than it. Education is something more than mere diversion in life. Education must lead to the true manifestation of the inner personality of an individual and assist the generation of peace and prosperity in the society. Lisa Delpit on education†¦. A) What are some ways a person can be made to feel different or invisible in our educational system? The one important problem zooming in the American classrooms is simple and obvious. Nearly 40 percent of the children belong to minority groups and the teacher is white. The issue of miscommunication is real. The teaching time becomes the mental struggle for the children and if their domestic conditions are also poor, it is double tragedy for them. A sincere teacher has to waste lots of time on account of this communication gap and to reduce the inferiority complex among such children. What Lisa propounds is not anti-white. She is pro-poor and for the downtrodden and wishes to make the best out of the education system for their future growth and suggests improvements. She is African-American but her analysis of the malady in the educational system, is honest and impartial. Misunderstanding about cultures is really great in American Schools. B) What are some ways you have felt silenced, different and /or invisible in your own education? Describe some specific examples and how each affects you. As a young student, I belonged to a poor family, and from the recollection of the past, I could clearly see how most of the teachers, differentiated between the rich and the poor students. The rich could afford private tuitions, from their own teachers, and the parents of such students had good rapport with the teachers. There were occasions, when such students brought costly gifts for the teachers on their birthdays, etc. But as for teaching in the class, the teachers took pains to teach, treated the students well and did not differentiate on counts of economic status. C) What were some helpful insights you gained from this book for bringing the gap between a child’s home and school culture (or therapeutic setting)? Lisa has succeeded in dealing with the issue of multi-cultures with a human face. This is not the problem of the school education alone. It is only the part. The problem has bigger dimension, as it affects the social set-up of the whole of USA. The ripples of the problem are naturally expected to impact the school-life of children. The tactful handling of the situation by the teaching community is one of the solutions to the vexed problem because the values taught to them at the formative stage of their lives, will leave positive or negative imprints for their entire lives. I do get the feeling, as I go through the contents of the book that the honest philosopher in Lisa, who touches the borders of spirituality, speaks for the benefit of humanity. The contents of the books are like the gush of fresh spring-water. Classrooms are the miniatures of the US society, and Lisa is aware of the implications of what is taught in the class. D) Are there any ideas and / or beliefs that you disagree with the book? The argument of Lisa that many minority students are erroneously labeled as â€Å"underachievers† due to failures of communication between teachers and students is part of the truth, not the whole truth. The teacher is always supposed to be more intelligent and experienced than the students, and the students hailing from poor families and minorities, in their endeavor to learn the topics detailed in the syllabus, have to mostly depend upon what is taught in the school, within the limited hours. They can not be expected to get support from the family and social environment in which they live. This is the main problem of such students, but there are many instances when such students have tackled this obstacle and converted it into an opportunity, and have sterling academic achievements to their credit. I have nothing to strongly disagree of what is propounded in the book. Conclusion: The problems of the American classrooms are linked to big and vexed social issues of the country. To expect that a white or black teacher will find the permanent solutions for them in the classroom, is asking for the moon. But the teachers, whose influence carries immensely, need to provide a sense of direction to the students, to enable them to understand the perspective of American life impartially and without bias/hatred. Reference Cited: Delpit, Lisa: Book: Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (Paperback) Paperback: 206 pages Publisher: New Press (February 1996) Language: English ISBN-10: 1565841808 ISBN-13: 978-1565841802               

Five Guys Burger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Five Guys Burger - Essay Example This has helped the food chain beat other fast food cafes to become one of the leading cafes in USA. Five Guys Burger is guided by the philosophy that if someone is going to sell burgers and fries in a restaurant in an industry crowded with fast food chains selling burgers and fries, then they better do the products better than anyone else (Kurtz, 2012). They believed that they were in the business to sell burgers and the customers were the most important part of the business.They believed that the customers were favoring them by giving the five guys an opportunity to serve them. This helped the owners develop over 250,000 ways of ordering burger in order to reach the maximum number of customers. The chain produces burgers from freshly ground beef, which is never frozen. They also filled their menu with fat-free products, which have attracted preference from several customers. The original aim of the food chain was to provide healthy burgers and fries to customers, which would also b e ordered easily. The entrepreneurs introduced ingredients that were fat free and used meat that was not frozen (Longenecker, 2012). This created the need for fresh food that drew several customers. The food chain also targeted customers from all age groups. They introduced food that caters for the taste and preference of every person, including vegetarians. Serving customers was also part of their core values and they introduced thousands of ways of ordering burgers and fries. Customers receive unlimited free refills of their drinks and are served with peanuts as they wait for their orders to be processed (Motz, 2008). These aspects have made Five Guys Burgers a preferred source of fast food compared to other restaurants. Their burgers are larger than those of competitors and they have introduced naked pizza that is prepared locally. Food products such as burger buns are prepared at the stores from scratch to ensure freshness. Freshness is a major factor that has led to success for Five Guys Burgers. The food chain utilizes natural ingredients to prepare the burgers and fries. Potatoes are peeled in the stores and buns are prepared by the chefs from scratch (Rust and Raffetto, 2010). They utilized whole grain crusts, hormone-free meat, and fresh vegetables to prepare their food. Customer service has also contributed to success for the Five Guys Burger. The owners have developed applications for their phones that enable them to access customer invoices at any time and from any place. Technology has introduced several ways of ordering burgers and fries from the food chain at any location. Customers receive refills and peanuts as tokens as they wait for their orders, a move that has established the food chain as the most favorite among other restaurants. The activities of Five Guys and other local fast food restaurants have made competitors such as KFC and Mc Donald lose part of their market share. Five Guys and other locally established burger places give custo mers a better value for money, which has increased pressure on global competitors. Five Guys restrains from using frozen and dehydrated products for customers in order to set its taste apart from competitors. A business organization has to set itselfapart from competitors in order to gain a competitive advantage. Five Guys consider the customer to be the best sales man, a strategy that is not incorporated in other restaurants

Concept for Nursing Theories course (End-of-life care) Term Paper

Concept for Nursing Theories course (End-of-life care) - Term Paper Example A sixty-year old man has decided to stop treatment for lung cancer and just wait for his death. The patient already received chemotherapy, but his conditions continued to worsen. His kidneys are failing too. The patient, relatives, and health care staff have acknowledged the imminence of death. Specifically, the patient and his/her relatives understand that they will no longer prolong life and they will only wait for their patient’s natural course of death. Second, the doctors and nurses have consulted the patient and kin for the advance end-of-life care plan, where the symptoms’ relief is outlined. The plan also integrates psychological, social, practical, and spiritual aspects of patient care in planning for end-of-life care. Since the patient is Catholic, he already listens to Bible readings every day and receives visits from a priest. Third, the plan includes providing a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and their own bereave ment. This includes counseling for the family and preparing them for the patient’s death. Finally, there should be a clear system of transparency and accountability in the decision-making process. If the patient signs a do-not-resuscitate order, the relatives should respect this decision, no matter how hard it is for them to let go.

Managerial Economic - Assignment # 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Managerial Economic - # 2 - Assignment Example The basic cable TV was unbundled into thematic bundles. This might have resulted into cutting cost by the company reducing operational expenses thus decreasing the cost of production while offering less channels to the public decreasing demand (Hubbad & Glen, 2008). As a result of the low subscriber base and low cost of production, the company had no choice but to reduce prices of the cable TV so as to remain in the market and be competitive. Due to high amount of the fixed costs and operations expenses, star hub should adjust their prices upwards so as to compensate for the high amount of the invested capital which may be used for expansionary activities and keeps the organization going (Krugman & Robin, 2006). Marginal cost is the extra amount that the company spends on the acquisition of the extra channels. Thus every channel is acquired at an extra cost to meet the company’s objectives. It is only logical that prices are raised so as to factor in the extra amount spend by the company (Krugman & Robin, 2006). An increase in costs functions results into higher prices reducing demand as shown above, while a decrease in cost of production lowers prices increasing demand. This is due to the inverse relations between cost and

Ethical issues in Financier by Theodore Dreiser Essay

Ethical issues in Financier by Theodore Dreiser - Essay Example He went to friends of his at the Century Company and proposed they commission Dreiser to write for the Century Magazine three articles on Europe which might eventually be expanded into book length, and at the same time he directed Dreiser to ask Harper's for an advance on The Financier. The result was that on November 18 Century sent Dreiser a check for a thousand dollars for three articles and the option on any book he might write about his trip, and Harper's, upon his depositing with them the first part of his manuscript, agreed to advance him two thousand dollars on The Financier and five hundred dollars against the earnings of Jennie Gerhardt. In addition Harper's prepared to reissue Sister Carrie. When Richards suggested to Dreiser that even the Nobel Prize was now within his grasp, Dreiser re gained his confidence and on November 22 sailed with Richards on the Mauretania, explaining to an interviewer before embarking that in his new novel "I'm doing the man as I see him. . . . And when I get through with him he'll stand there, unidealized and uncursed, for you . . . to take and judge according to your own lights and blindnesses and attitudes toward life." In this spirit he was seeking to observe the "color of life." (Markle 10) Yet, baseless as Dreiser's worries mig... He remembered all the writing that he wished to do, wrote Mencken asking whether he would read the manuscript of The Financier, and although Richards tried to persuade him to visit the Hardy country, decided early in April that he must take the first available ship back to America. This ship happened to be the Titanic, but since it was on its maiden voyage, Richards thought it might be uncomfortable and preferred to secure Dreiser passage on the Kroonland, which arrived in New York at the end of the month, when Dreiser began at once completing The Financier. Dreiser wanted to call his whole trilogy The Financier, and the first volume simply "Volume One," but Harper's insisted that was commercially inadvisable. Dreiser wanted to shorten his novel so that it would not run to 800 pages, but Harper's was giving him no time to make adequate cuts. Mencken, however, was abroad when Dreiser returned from Europe, and it was not until May 7 that Dreiser could write to him from New York: "Lord[,] I'm glad to know you[']r[e] back. . . . I wish I could talk to you. I have a whole raft of things to discuss not the least of which is the present plan of publishing this book in 3 volumes -- 1 volume every 6 months. . . . For heaven sake keep in touch with me by mail for I'm rather lonely & I have to work like the devil." Mencken did keep in touch, and while during the summer Jug returned in what was the final attempt to solve the problem of loneliness, Mencken encouraged him in his work, read galleys, suggested the excision of irrelevant details and the expansion of certain incidents, and assured him: "You have described and accounted for and interpreted Cowperwood almost perfectly.

Spanish-American War 1898 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Spanish-American War 1898 - Essay Example President McKinley finally had no choices in the matter as a result of the sinking of the USS Maine. Foreign policy changed dramatically as a result of the consequences of this very short, very significant war that is often forgotten in view of the Civil War. The Spanish-American War, one where Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders earned their place in history, brought about a great deal of change to the perception of the United States by others in the world. This war would cause major changes in the realm of American foreign policy in its wake. The war was brought on by these many factors and soon after the declaration for war was made, soldiers were headed for Havana and Santiago. The Yellow Journalism that began with Hearst and Pulitzer caused a great deal of grief as is relayed in several pieces. One very significant accounting would be an eyewitness description by H. H. Kolsaat as he held in his hand a telegram from the forces in Manila Bay when the USS Maine had been lost. Eyewitness to History's website states that H. H. Kolsaat's recollection of the meeting with President McKinley included a conversation that ended with McKinley in tears saying, "Congress is trying to drive us into war with Spain. The Spanish fleet is in Cuban waters, and we haven't enough ammunition on the Atlantic seacoast to fire a salute." (1) H. H. Kolsaat continues on to say that he spent nearly half the night speaking with the President after the evening's activities. Only the first of many agonizing conversations that the President suffered through in the declaration of war, one he was quite reluctant to consider until there appeared to be no choices in the matter. The deciding factor for President McKinley came in a private letter written by Enrique Dupuy de Lme, the Spanish Minister in Washington, to a Spanish editor then traveling in the United States. It was this letter, described as part of the text from American Military History: Army Historical Series; Chapter 15 Emergence to World Power 1898-1902 and stating the following as the letter "expressed de Lme's adverse personal reaction to McKinley's message to Congress in December 1897. The President was, he thought, "weak and a bidder for admiration of the crowd . . . a would-be politician who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes in his party."" (2) This outraged most Americans when it was published after a man stole it from the office where it had been sent. The outraged outcry from the United States caused what President McKinley considered to be the hardest decision of his career. This decision was to go to war with inadequate forces, in adequate supplies and terrible conditions to work within. All of this had been sparked in the fervor of what has been termed Yellow Journalism, created by Joseph Pulitzer and John Hearst in their work to take the country to war using public opinion as the impetus of the action. Their tactics, no matter how underhanded, managed the objective. The results were felt worldwide. The Spanish-American War of 1898 was one of the shortest wars America ever fought. Four months into the war, it was over. But, the consequences of that war were broad spectrum and felt worldwide. The Spanish-American War of 1898 did the one thing nothing else had managed. It proved that the

Organizational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

Organizational Behaviour - Essay Example Managing OB is a relatively complex process in normal situations, especially if a major change occurs like mergers and acquisitions (M&A) or other important structural or managerial changes within an organization. This organizational change is quite often stressful to everyone concerned. There may be fears of loss of jobs, changes in duties and responsibilities, fears (or hopes) of change in the compensation structure, and the ever present attitude of resistance to change. This paper is a study of organizational behaviour, culture, and change in the context of an acquisition of two banks in the Republic of Cyprus. The study will be with reference to major theories, perceptions, books, journals, and that have been evolved over the years with regard to OB, culture and change. The Laiki Bank made an offer to Egnatia Bank, and the Marfin Financial Group in September 2006, and successfully acquired them a month later. The name of the organization (Laiki Bank) was changed to Marfin Popular Bank Public Company Ltd. The entity will be referred to Marfin Popular Bank in the rest of the paper. At the time of the acquisition Laiki Bank was one of the largest and oldest banks in Cyprus. What is interesting is that the other two banks were also similar in size and were running profitably. The offer to acquire the other two banks was approved by the shareholders of Laiki Bank and the acquisition took place a month after the offer was made. The apparent â€Å"motivation behind the merger was to create a strong financial group to facilitate expansion into the broader banking and financial market of the Balkan states and southeastern Europe† (Morley & Ward, 2008, P. 22). The Laiki Bank was partly owned by HSBC, which gave up its twenty one percent stake after the acquisition. In that sense, the management and employees of the bank had the

General Motors Essay Example for Free

General Motors Essay I first want to start out with the bailout in 2009 where the government gave General Motors money ($40 million) to help get them out the situation with their creditors and took over most of the company. According to reports all of the outstanding stock has been sold and now the company is out of the government’s hands. The total amount given to them was not paid in full and they do not feel like they need to repay anymore because they said that there was a risk with taking the stock and that the government would just get back what the stock sold for. I know that this is true in the stock market, as I have stocks myself and know the risks that I am taking. I still have a problem with giving them money when one of the other larger automobile companies (Ford Motor Company) took it upon themselves to restructure and is paying off their own debts little by little and is still moving along today. Along with the sale of all of the stock came a lift on the freeze of upper management wages and incentives. This is just not right. I would like to live on what some of them make, and I am sure that I could live very comfortably. Let them come and live on my income and see what they can do. I really have a problem with going overseas for production and I always will. It is probably my age and all of the trials and tribulations that I have lived through as well as what I have seen others live through. Many people were told that their jobs would be secure and since then General Motors has cut back on jobs here in the United States. I wonder just how many people outside of this country have been given jobs that could have been here at home. I know that many companies take production overseas because they say that the costs for labor are a lot  lower. Well, that may be true but has anyone seen the living conditions of those people overseas. Are we really paying them what they should be getting? Let’s take into consideration all of the recalls that General Motors has made in the last few years. Way too many in my book. Why is there faulty material being used to manufacture a product that could easily take the lives of many people. These products were made mostly overseas, I believe, and could lower wages be part of the problem of not noticing the faulty parts in the first place? By taking away incentives for prospective buyers, I believe, really hurt their business, but then I say, â€Å"Why give an incentive and not just reduce the price of the car in the first place?† I know that consumers look f or incentives but I think that they would look just as hard if the price of the cars were lower too. Let us look at the strategy that General Motors is wanting to take. The strategy that I believe that they are using is a combination of three strategies. They are as follows: Defensive Strategy in that General Motors decided to cut back the number of makes of automobiles; Cost-Leadership Strategy in that expenses needed to manufacture the cars are kept at a lower cost and maintained at that lower cost; and Differentiation Strategy in that they need to make a superior product for a vast number of people at a low cost. According to the plan General Motors is going to start making their automobiles using the same parts in the same laid out plants and using the same kind of tools throughout. They are also cutting back on the number of models from 86 to 49. When it came to the cost-leadership strategy, I put the loss of incentives to customers in this category. I still do not understand why there are incentives when they could just reduce the price of the automobile or truck. I think that people would look more if the price were lower. The differentiation strategy they have cut back on the workforce but are still making the superior produc t for a vast audience. I realize that they need to watch their competitors closely, especially those overseas but they also need to take care of the people right here in the United States. General Motors has a vision to reduce costs and increase revenue through global sales growth to a net profit of 10%. I think that they are asking for a lot out of the economy, as it is today As the plan states, Ford is farther ahead of General Motors and they made more of a profit per vehicle sold than General Motors. This was all done because of  going globally. The culture needs to change too and get away from focusing on selling the most cars and take care of the customers that they currently have and possibly will have in the future. Yes, sales are important, but they will come if their customer focus is there first. I think that the 10% increase in profits is a little out the park when you are just restructuring and trying to maintain your status. You will need to take smaller increases in profit for a few years and then the profits will increase as the years go by. When looking at SMART goals I find that General Motors set their goal of making more than $10 billion per year. This is a very challenging goal for a company that is just coming back from restructuring. This goal is very specific but I do not believe that it is attainable with the economy that we have today. I know that they look at achieving this goal globally but they really need to concentrate right here in the United States. To be results-oriented they needed to decrease the number of types of cars they produce, reduce the number in their global workforce, (which they did), reduce the number of union workers here in the United States (which they did) and close down plants that were not up to par (which they did). Was this the right decision to make? Who knows for sure? The only thing that I can see is that they put a lot of people out of work. In looking at the Planning/Control Cycle, I see that General Motors followed it by making the plan, carrying out the plan, they looked at the results of the plan and they controlled the direction of the plan by making any corrections as they went along with the plan. Planning is very important in everything that you do. You must always follow through too and watch as the plan is being carried out and always have control of what is going on and make sure that you make any corrections as the plan goes on. If need be, go back to the beginning and start all over again if the plan goes off track too far or if you have to make too many corrections. According to Mr. Akerson when asked about being back on top and the world’s largest auto maker his response was: â€Å"General Motors needs to focus on profits and margins and not necessarily try to post nu mbers on the board.† Maybe they need to go back and re-think their plan again and make sure they are staying on track as they proceed. In conclusion, I just want to add that I read two reports that just came out on CNN today. â€Å"One concerned a former manager for General Motors, Bill McAleer, who was in charge of the Global delivery system from 1988 to 1998 which was  used to access the quality of cars before they were sent to various dealers. He said that the culture of General Motors was the main problem of the company where if there was a problem and you said anything that you could be fired and then on the other hand if you did not say anything, you still could be fired.† What kind of culture is that? It is kind of twisted, if I must say. He said that he had sent a letter to the upper management about all of the defects that he had found and that they just ignored it. He also said that he never received a response in any way about the letter. He mentioned that in 1997 the focus for the company really changed and internally and that there were to be NO problems admitted to. How ridiculous is that. There is never a time during the day that a company does not have some kind of problem. He went on to say; â€Å"That’s what happened with the ignition switch, people knew that there was a problem but problems were not acceptable. They just ignored it.† Mr. McAleer was laid off in 2004 and filed suit agains t the company under the Whistleblower Law but he lost his suit. And what happened yesterday, June 27, 2014? General Motors recalled another 430,000 2013 and 2014 vehicles for various defects from windshield wiper assemblies on Caprice Police Cars, to transmission software, to rear shock absorbers, and to air bag problems. What is with this company? The article stated that since January, General Motors has recalled more than 20 million vehicles worldwide. If they knew about the ignition switch more than a decade ago and did nothing until this year, why are they still in business? Where are most of these defective parts coming from? I would imagine that you can see why I cannot be happy about this company. I have lived many years and have worked in various occupations and have seen the defective merchandise come from out of the country and would just sit there and shake my head. Working in retail for over 20 years, I just would not put merchandise on the floor for customers to purchase if I found it to be defective. Did I get into trouble for it? Absolutely not! We cared about our customers, why doesn’t General Motors. Seems like all they are interested in is the almighty dollar. Ref: CNN.com Article by Patrick Sheridan, June 28, 2014 @ 12:24 pm ET Article by Patrick Sheridan, June 27, 2014 @ 6:564 pm ET

Reasons for bullying behaviour Essay Example for Free

Reasons for bullying behaviour Essay Olweus (1980) identified that bullying children are usually impulsive and have an aggressive temperament and children who are bullied have a shy or weak temperament. Some of the children who are bullied lack assertiveness skills. Also, being different in some way such as being from a different ethnic group increases the chances of being bullied. In addition, children with special educational needs, with a physical disability or mild or moderate learning difficulties are also at risk of getting bullied. Researches conducted by Petterson, DeBaryshe and Ramsay (1989) also identifies factors at home as reasons for bullying. Factors such as lack of warmth between the parents or among other members of the family, use of physical violence within the family or lack of clear guidance for behaviour to the children or even lack of monitoring of children’s activities. Study conducted by Olweus (1980) in Norvegia also indicated links of family background to bullying. For bullied children, Olweus (1993) found that over-protective parenting may increase the risk of being bullied. Children in over-protected family environments usually do not develop skills as much as children who are independent and hence become vulnerable by the bullies. Bowers, Smith and Binney (1992) conducted research on the children’s, who are either the bullies or the victims, perception of their families. They studied and compared the perceptions of bullies, victims, bully/victims and control children. The study indicated that many bullies and bully/victims perceived that their families were relatively lacking affection among the family members. The study also revealed that there were very poor monitoring procedures. The children who are only involved in bullying perceived that their families have power relationships between the siblings and the other members of the family. In this case of bully/victims the children perceived difficulties with the parental behaviour such as punitive ness and lack of involvement. The children perceived that their parents were more concerned about their own position in the family. (Smith, P. K. et al, 2007) Peer-level characteristics associated with bullying and victimisation Peers are considered to be the most influential group in issues related to bullying. Various studies such as Espelage et al (2003), Pellegrini Long (2002), Rodkin et al (2000) have studied the influence of peers in how individuals take to aggression and bullying. Homophily Hypothesis This hypothesis is based on the similarity of individuals within a group. In the late childhood and early adolescence, the peer group becomes extremely important for the individuals. During this time, the peer group involves in similar behavioural dimensions such as smoking, academic achievements and so on. This similarity within the group is called homophily. In studies conducted on middle school students, homophily was found to be true in explaining the extent of how much the peer influenced each other in bullying their peers. The effect of peers was found to be higher for bullying than fighting. This provided evidence that peer influence plays an important role in low-level aggression than fighting. It was found that students generally hang out with the kids who bullied others. It was found that the students who bullied at similar frequency were found to hang out more. Dominance theory Dominance theory is based on the observation that during the early adolescence, children look to increase their dominance. Pellegrini (2002) observed that the transition to middle school requires children to renegotiate their dominance relationships. Bullying is found to be a deliberate strategy for attaining the dominance, especially in a newly formed peer groups. Studies indicate that bullying was used more frequently by boys who targeted their aggression towards other boys during this transition. This theory is structured around the complex interaction among the adolescent for the need of dominance, changes in the social surroundings and peer-group structure and the desire to interact with the opposite sex. Attraction Theory Attraction theory is based on the change in behaviour of young adolescents. It focuses on their need to establish a separation from their parents and also become attracted to other people in their age group who possess characteristics that is a reflection of independence. This independence can be interpreted as delinquency, aggression, disobedience and similar characteristics. In this period, these adolescents are less attracted to individuals who possess characteristics of childhood such as compliance and obedience. This makes these early adolescents attracted to peers who are aggressive. This was also found during a study of 217 boys and girls by Bukowski, who found that the girls and boys were more attracted to aggressive peers when they entered the middle school. The increase in attraction for aggressiveness was more for girls. The different theories, especially the homophily hypothesis, dominance theory and attraction theory demonstrate the complex nature of bullying during the early years of adolescence.

Relationship between India and the USA

Relationship between India and the USA Abstract This piece of work tries to study the relations of one superpower and another emerging power in international order. The relations of India-US have passed through a roller -coaster character since 1950s. The study is about the Indo-US relations during post Cold-War period. It tries to present in- depth study of the relation between two states, with historical background, major events of the period, US involvement in South Asia/India, its stand on India-Pakistan disputes. It observes about the transition from ‘estranged democracies’ to a ‘strategic partnership’ of the relations. US interests in the region were for many years interpreted as philanthropic rather than commercial or strategic, and the US was closed ally with Pakistan. The study is trying to find out How the neglected country for almost 50 years got top priority and finally turned to be natural ally. The relations have passed through different stage from ‘neither friend nor enemy’, ‘distanced democracies ’, ‘engaged democracies’ and finally as ‘natural allies’ with nuclear partnership. This achievement and transformation is not happened overnight. To achieve these, both countries have passed through different states overtime. The thesis tries to find out some reason behind this quick development in the relations. The transformation happened during post Cold -War period. Behind these transformations some reason such as Indian practice of democratization, open market policy, huge development on economy and IT sector played vital role. Likewise, US goal in the region was fulfilled while making good relations with India. After analysing some major events and immediate reaction, the thesis tries to make an argument that, with other reasons side by side, the nuclear test of 1998 by India was the central theme that helped for the transformations of the relations.   Chapter 1 Introduction and literature review Topic introduction and Purpose of the study After the end of the Cold War, the United States is leading in the International Order, and it is experienced that- this time is American time, its hegemony and policy for liberal democracy, human rights or in any colour or form. So its relations with any other part of the world is itself interesting and important. On the other hand, India is the largest democracy in the world and emerging power in the International order. It is economically and strategically threat to the US, it is tiger in Asia in term of population, economy and nuclear capacity. The relation between the superpower and emerging power is obviously important to the students of International Relations/politics or common people as well. So it is hoped that this research makes some interesting and important line of arguments. â€Å"As the tiger economies of South-east Asia roared away in the 1970s and 1980s, Indias biggest achievements remained its ability to feed its own people, and its adherence against the odds to democracy. Unshackled by the economic liberalisation of the early 1990s, India is already poised to overtake Japan as the worlds third largest economy. The nuclear status of India has been formally acknowledged by the US And, when the UN is finally reformed, its likely to land a permanent seat on the Security Council† (BBC Online, 2009.) For over forty years, the United States has contended with the problem of formatting a coherent policy toward South Asia- a region that contains approximately one-fifth of the world’s population. During this time, US policy has surrounded between interventions and withdrawal.  Detailed analysis of how Washington determines its South Asian policy, especially with regard to the regions two major states: India and Pakistan. The nations of South Asia contain a fifth of the human race. They include one state (India) that is certainly the world’s largest democracy and one other (Pakistan) that has been an intermittent ally of the US since 1953. For over thirty-five years Washington’s policy has shifted uneasily from neglect of the region to intense involvement in its economic, political, and military affairs, seeing in the former certain ideological and moral values and in the latter certain strategic and military advantages. This research tries to fill a gap in understanding of the reasons for American involvement in and policy toward South Asia especially India. The literature on US foreign policy is dominated by relations with the Soviet Union and Western Europe. American relations with Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and South Asia are relatively neglected and episodic in nature. This absence of interest is especially marked in the case of South Asia. Yet, American decisions have profoundly affected the lives of most South Asians, the societies of regional states, and their external policies. It has often been noted that this influence and the relationship is excessively one-sided: American decisions affect South Asians far more than South Asian decisions can ever affect Americans. The purpose of this study is to examine the sources and patters of American responses towards events in India over a period of time, through an examination of some case study. Giving some brief introduction and history of Indo-US security relation after 2nd World War, it talks in detail about the relation during Post Cold War period. After the end of the Cold War, every country around the world effected, but South Asian countries effected more than others. The US has no rival in world order, but India and Pakistan, two countries from the South Asia emerged as new nuclear power. India could not be the state as neglected before. Post Cold- War period saw dramatic changes in US-India relation. Research Focus/Research question The main thrust of this thesis is to present the Indo-US relations during Post Cold War period, to study main events of the period and to explore the reasons behind the transformation in relations. The thesis is focused on the periphery of Post Cold War leading to 9/11. In the short span of time in 1990s how the transformation was possible, how the neglected country for almost 50 years got top priority in American foreign policy, it tries to answer these questions. The thesis tries to make an argument that the nuclear test of 1998 was the central theme that helped for the transformation of the relation. The Indo-US convergence was abruptly interrupted by India’s May 1998 nuclear tests. President Clinton’s initial reaction was simultaneously emotional: ‘To think that you have to manifest your greatness by behaviour that recalls the very worst events of the 20th century on the edge of the 21st century when everybody else is trying to leave the nuclear age behind, is just wrong.’ Because of the fact that both India and Pakistan had been de facto nuclear weapon states, US concerned about the possibility of nuclear war in South Asia, but it was obviously a challenge in Western hegemony as well. Although the US imposed suspension of most military-military contacts, the nuclear tests started a high-level engagements between the US and India. Overtime, the Clinton Administration adapted itself to the reality that India’s great-power aspirations included becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state. India’s 1998 nuclear explosive test were a blessing in disguise for long-term Indo-US relations. Once the tests exploded the illusion, Washington and New Delhi could get on with the important task of relating to one another on a more equal footing. Methodology The study is based on academic writings such as books, journal and online resources. While using such material a great care has been taken in term of their credibility. The books studied for the research are written by academics mostly of Indian background in origin. Mostly they are educated in American Universities and working there in US Universities. Their academic background and research area is about American foreign policy, Asian studies, Asians security. Likewise the online resources have been used with great care such as produced by the academics and trustworthy organizations like Asia Foundations, governmental bodies and well -known research centres. Though writers are educated and being engaged in US academia, care have been taken while developing arguments from their writing, being India origin, emotional behave might affect on their writing about American or Indian perspective. The thesis also contains three major events which were supposed to play determinative role for the transformations of the relations. Likewise it also collects immediate reaction after the test. For reactions the samples have been collected in three groups. Structure of the thesis The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction explaining the topic and subject matter, rationale, and methodology. This chapter also includes the literature review. The second chapter traces the history of Indo-US relations. It talks about the US engagement in Asia and India. It simply presents the history of the relation explaining some major events of the period. The third chapter is about the post Cold -War scenarios. It begins with how the US started tilting to India not Pakistan. The change in American policy to South Asia and India begin at this point of time. This chapter explains three major events of the period as case study: Kashmir Issue 1999, nuclear test 1998 and Clinton visit 2002. After this, in Chapter Four to know the immediate reaction after the test, it collects some thoughts expressed in news Medias and thoughts by think tanks especially in the US. How the think-tank and the governments reacted to the test and talked about the bilateral relations.   After analysing three major events and reactions of the governments, think tanks and views expressed on newspaper, Chapter Five, the main part of the thesis makes an argument that it was the nuclear test 1998, which helped to transform the relation. This chapter once again makes a revision of the relation since 1950s. Finally, the thesis contains the conclusion and bibliography. Literature Review: As mentioned above, literature on American foreign policy is easily accessible and available everywhere but regarding the US relations to the South Asian region; book and journals are not available enough as compared to other regions. The literature on US foreign policy is dominated by relations with the Soviet Union and Western Europe. For example, Ambrose S E. (1993) exclusively presents the history of American foreign policy since 1938. Ambrose gives detail survey of American Foreign Policy from the period America was secure in the world-neither of the great totalitarian political forces of the century, Fascism or Communism. The author presents the overview of the evolution of American foreign Policy focusing on major events like World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War, and the SALT treaties. It also talks about the individual Presidents and their changed attitudes to the different regions. Ambrose begins with the starting years of American Foreign Policy and its strength overtime up to Bush Policy and US engagements in Gulf war. Ambrose presents a chronological history of American Foreign Policy, but this book hardly discusses the development in South Asian region. The author is quite on US engagement in South Asia/India or US involvement in Indian/Pakistani War, Kargil issue As compared to Ambrose, Spanier J (1983) talks about the US and third world (author’s term) developments. Spanier presents an account of American foreign policy from the closing days of World War II to the beginning of the second Regan administration. The author presents interpretation of the roles of the Unites States on the world stage since it became a nuclear superpower. It also talks about the theoretical frameworks of American foreign policy like the American approach to foreign policy, the state system, the American national style, the contrast between systematic and national behaviour. Spainer clearly tries to explore the reason behind World War, its significance and detailed survey of impact of nuclear weapons on the pattern of American-Soviet relations. The author explains in detail about the role of 3rd world during the Cold War to conflict with-and-in-the Third World. Bertsch K. Gary et.al. (1999) collects twelve essays by US educated academics with background study in South Asian studies. Most of the authors are with Indian background, educated and engaged in US intuitions. The write-up reflects their long experiences with their work either academic or institution like US based South Asia Program, Institutes for Defence Studies. The author addresses the broad range of non-proliferation and foreign policy issues that affect Indo-American relations. It not only describes missile control and space cooperation, chemical and biological weapons, and the use of sanctions versus incentives, the individual authors with their expertise knowledge provide practical recommendations for how a stronger and more meaningful dialogue can be established between the policy makers of the world’s two largest democracies. Authors present about the history of Indo-US relations in different perspective like strategic, economic, political, technical aspects but its main focus is to talk about broad insight into India’s relations with the rest of the world in the shadow of India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Likewise Gangulyscobell (2006) present a series of perspectives about US-Indian strategic cooperation. The authors make an effort for the current status and future instructions of the relation. The identify the strategic context for and logic behind Indias emerging security cooperation with the US, the strategic context for and logic behind growing US security cooperation with India, growing bilateral cooperation in the US-led Global War on Terrorism. Likewise, it raises an important issue of the US assessment of Indias role in the anti-terror struggle, Indian assessment of the US worldwide anti-terror effort, Chinese view of the growing security ties between Washington and New Delhi. Likewise it identifies some military-to-military ties between the United States and India, one from the perspective of Washington, and the other from a New Delhi perspective. S. Ganguly et.al. (2006) traces the origins, development and the current state of Indo-US strategic cooperation. The authors access the strategic cooperation of the worlds two largest democracies. They entirely talk about the strategic relation of the two countries. The book provides an assessment of Indo-US relations with a particular focus on the evolution of contemporary bilateral relations, focuses on the current state of military-to-military cooperation. The authors highlight the development of Indo-US defence ties over the last few decades and examine its underlying causes. Likewise they addressees key areas of future strategic cooperation including high technology trade, participation in multilateral peacekeeping operations. S. Ganguly’ (1990) identifies the key issues of how Washington determines its South Asian policy, especially with regard to the region’s two major states: India and Pakistan. Using case studies the author bases his study on US policy in four major South Asian crises: the 1962 India-China War, the India-Pakistan conflicts of 1965 and 1971, and the massive draught of 1966-1967. Ganguly’s research not only talks about the American foreign policy during different presidents in office and major events but also it talks about the theoretical aspect of American foreign policy. It describes analytical perspective of US foreign policy, South Asia and US foreign policy, history of Indo-US relations and Indo-China War, 1965 War, The 1965-67 Crisis, the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war. The author provides the detailed explanation of the major events of the history between two states and mostly incidents are based on American perspective. As mentioned earlier since the region itself did not get priority, so the discussion about the region in world affairs was limited. Only after late 1990s and especially after the nuclear test, the literature on American policy to Asia and India seems growing. One of such discussion is J. Singh (1998). It provides both historical and contemporary analytical insights on a variety of subjects that impose upon a nuclear India. Singh checks out the nuclear reality as it exists today, at the national and international level. He begins with why nuclear weapons are required and what are they all about. It further examines the rationale for the possession of nuclear weapons, detailed history of the Indian nuclear policy formulation between 1964-1998, presents history to trace the origin of nuclear weapons. It also demonstrates about the paths of proliferation and non-proliferation over the last five decades. The author also looks at the increasing proliferation concerns in the Indian neighbourhood, lists out the major proliferation challenges that have emerged after the Cold War. Likewise, it further focuses specially on ballistic missiles and their implications for international security. Likewise it also presents a detailed study of both China and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and missile programme, examines the traditional Indian position on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, impact of the nuclear test ban on the post-Cold War environment. It gives enough information about the nuclear weapons, their introduction, how they work and why they are required. It also presents the history of nuclear weapons, telling about the nuclear have countries when and how they conducted it. Jain, Rashmi (Ed.) 2006) presents the record of the transition of Indo-US relations from ‘estranged democracies’ to a ‘strategic partnership’ in the 21st century. It is the inclusive and current study of the political, economic/trade, military/defence and nuclear proportions of Indo-US relations from 1947 to 2006. Jain discusses the overall trends in relations between India and the United States during the Cold War and after. It deals with the implications of the American alliance with Pakistan, the extension of limited arms assistance to India following the India-China war of 1962 and support to the Tashkent and Simla agreements, Nixons tilt towards Pakistan during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, India’s nuclear test of 1947. The study contains a selection of 692 basic documents from official sources, including Congressional hearings, and provides the full texts or extracts from various agreements, joint communiquà ©s and statements and interviews by Government dignitaries. It is the collection of official documents related between the relations of two countries for about fifty years. It works as primary source for the researcher. Beside these books, Journal and other reports have been used while conducting the research. Journals like Foreign affairs, International Affairs, Strategic Affairs, and online edition of The Economist and news sites of BBC, CNN, The New York Times and Indian newspapers such as Hindu, the Times of India has been used. Likewise US congress report, governmental publications and the reports published by the Ministry of Indian External Affairs have been used. Chapter 2 Historical Background ‘South Asia and US Foreign Policy-US meets India’ This chapter briefs about the American Foreign Policy and US involvement in South Asia/India. It is an account of US-Indo relations after 1950s to late 1980s. It is not chronological history of the relation, but it includes major events and trends of the time. South Asia comprises a subsystem of powers with two major nations; India and Pakistan that are actually within South Asia and there others, China, the US and the USSR, that are extra-regional players in the region. South Asia also contains other states with minimal military and economical power; Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. By virtue of their global status, the US and the USSR have been involved in South Asia until 1990s. South Asian Countries are often introduced by political instability, a relative diffusion of powers and slow economic development. These characteristics and weakness prompted the two superpowers to fill the apparent power vacuum and to change it in order to strengthen their respective global and regional policies (Ganguly S. 1999.) South Asia has been usually been regarded as only marginally important to the United States. In the major American security decisions regarding the stability of the international system, maintenance of nuclear balance or the problem of war and peace, South Asia was not considered a determining factor. Some reasons can be traced behind less priority of US to South Asia   First, it was not vital strategically; it did not offer any major resources essential to American industry. Second, the low level of economic and political interaction could not generate a positive image of South Asia in the American mind. In American perceptions, the area remained a preserve of British interests. Thus, US interests in the region were for many years interpreted as philanthropic rather than commercial or strategic (R.Arthur, 2006.) The central dilemma of US policy in South Asia since 1947 has been to deal with the competing claims of the two principal states of this region, India and Pakistan. In a sense, the constant dilemma of Americas South Asia Policy is a result of the regional contest between these two states.Of these two Sub continental states, if India was often a unimportant factor in US perception of the global strategic equation, Pakistan was an insignificant factor unless military aligned with the US. The initial US involvement in South Asia was barely influenced by the regional developments.  What did shape the US role was the shrinking British Empire and the rapid decline of the KMT regime in China. Succeeding US military links to South Asia (especially Pakistan), a subsidiary of its concern in relation to the Soviet Union, accidentally emphasized the level of hostility between India and Pakistan. US involvement not only annoyed India but also brought the Soviet Union and later China into the Subcontinent and made the region an arena of Cold war politics (Ganguly S, 1990.) In many ways, US involvement in India started during World War II, before this both officials and unofficial contacts with India were minimal. While the US maintained a few consular officers in India to look after commercial interests, it relied largely on British Foreign Office communications for information on the Indian political situation. The US really became involved in South Asia after its entry into World War II. British India served at that time as a spring –board for allied military operations against the Japanese in China and Southeast Asia. India’s relations with the Unites States have been described variously as ‘estranged democracies’ and distance powers by Americans. Indian have tended to describe it as ‘distanced democracies’, ‘engaged democracies’ and finally as ‘natural allies’. Another common refrain often articulated from India, describes the United States as the oldest and most powerful democracy and itself as the largest. The expectation from both sides appears to have been that ‘democracy’ will somehow transcend national interests and security imperatives and shape the relationship (B.Dipankar, 2006.) Relations between India and the US have varied widely over the last sixty-five years and adopted a roller-coaster character with many ups and downs and high and lows. In recent years India –US relations has transformed into what both sides claim to be a strategic partnership. Even as both countries move towards that desirable goal, it is useful to recall that divergences in perceptions and policies have varied widely over the years. At the end of the Second World War the Unites States emerged as the undisputed leader of the free world. Its lead in almost every area of consequence remains unchallenged for decades. All its possible peers were largely destroyed by the war and indeed needed Washington’s help to revive themselves. The United States did not just dominate the emerging world order, but had the opportunity to shape it by laying out its figures and establishing the international institutions that would determine its future. Within a few years of the War’s end, the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc emerged as the only group that could conceivably challenge this order, but only in a limited military sense. For India, the immediate concerns were different. It was to emerge from colonialism and external domination as an independent entity. It had first to fully assert its independence, in which it only got success partially as the nation itself was split into India and Pakistan addressing the region to internal conflict for decades. India’s identity and nationalism had to be developed an additional based on its own values and heritage and its territories needed to be consolidated. In addition to these concerns, a modern state had to be created almost from the beginning with all its associated institutions. (C. Raja Mohan 2003) To achieve these immediate goals, India needed a peaceful external environment, uncomplicated by the rivalries of the global power struggle. New Delhi needed to craft a policy that would provide it a meaningful and autonomous role in a future world, in keeping with its own size potential and aspiration. In accordance with these needs it choose a policy of ‘non-alignment’. The term itself was much misunderstood in the world, and particularly in the US. India, perhaps justifiably, never fully explained its position, leading many in the west to ask, ‘non-aligned against what; good and evil?’(R.Bahukutumbi, 1996.) What Nehru opined was a policy that would enable India to take independent positions on international issues without being tied down by alliances and ideological constraints. The central theme was not to get drawn in to military entanglements with major powers. He also hoped this would open up the possibility for India to adopt a position of some leadership of the emerging world. Many practical difficulties emerged, which hindered the implementations of this policy over the years. Over time, other countries also decided to remain ‘non-aligned’. On global issues, non-alignment often meant aligning against the west. Overall this policy prohibited the possibility of a military relationship with any country or grouping. This policy, and differences in world view, became a major barrier to an Indo-US military relationship throughout the Cold War (Ganguly S, 1990.) Indo-US diplomatic relations go back to the presidency of George Washington when Benjamin Joy was appointed to the position of US Consul in Calcutta, the then Indian Capital in 1792. Nothing of note happened until April 1941. When Girija Shakar Bajpai was appointed the first Agent General of India in Washington DC and Thomas Wilson shifted as US Commissioner from Calcutta to New Delhi. At that time President Roosevelt understood that a successful pursuit of the war against the Axis powers required India’s willing support and cooperation. Roosevelt’s support for Indian independence and concern about continuing British rule had left a favourable impression on Indians (Chari PR 1999.) Churchill’s refusal to contemplate a serious change in British imperial policy compelled the Indian National Congress to launch the Quit India movement in 1942. The Congress leaders believed that only an India that was promised freedom after the war could voluntarily join the war against fascism. Instead, the British responded by locking up most senior Congress political leaders. In spite of this, India’s participation in the Second World War was remarkable by any standards. Over two and a half million soldiers, each a volunteer, fought with Allied armies in many of the major threats of the global conflict. This contribution was particularly salient in the Burma front, without which the outcome would have been considerably less certain. In addition to the roughly half-million soldiers from India and the British Commonwealth in this theatre, the Allied forces were joined by troops representing the Nationalist Chinese, many Africans and, by the war’s end, some 250,000 US soldiers (Sigh 2005.) This enormous US troop contribution was easily its largest military-to-military relationship in South Asia. US forces provided the bulk of logistics support, flew substantial numbers of air sorties across uncharted routes in unstable aircraft, and ensured that the Kuomintang forces remained in the war against Japan in China. In addition, there was also the enormous Brooklyn air conditioning plant near Kolkata, the largest in Asia at the time that stored and supplied food to all Allied forces in the East (Banerjee, D 2000.) It might have been expected that this state relations would continue after Indian independence. Instead, the Cold war intervened. India was partitioned and a separate state, Pakistan came into existence in 1947. During the Cold War, the pressure of strategic imperatives often widened the disjuncture between the hope and the reality resulting in hurtful Indo-US relations. The US support to Pakistan on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the United Nations in 1948-49, and initiation of military support to Pakistan in 1954, shed a binding shadow on the relationship. The United States wanted to join as many states as possible in its war against communism, often in a formal strategic relationship. India viewed the logic of American alliances as directly breaking its own interests. India was convinced that American military support had encouraged Pakistan to wage war against it in 1965. This happened again during Indo-Pak war in 1971, when the US gave warnings to India and sent the USS Enterprise of its 7th Fleet into the Bay of Bengal. The United States perceived India’s policy of non-alignment as self-righteous and considered its neutrality far from neutral, citing examples of its silence over the Soviet invasion of Hungary and Czechosloskavia in 1968 (Dasgupta 2002.) In mid 1961 India agreed to buy the MiG-21 aircraft from the Soviet Union. This was offered on such munificent terms that neither Great Britain, nor France nor the US could come up with a comparable offer even if they wanted to match it. Thus, began a long and enduring Indo-Soviet arms relationship (Ganguly S, 1990.) The very strong Indian reaction to the evolving Pakistan-US military alliance was perhaps not anticipated in Washington. In any case, by now India’s image in the US had plunged and New Delhi‘s concerns were not a factor in US decision making. Indo-US relations remained frozen in a sate of suspended hostility until 1962. The Chinese aggression on India in Oct-Nov 1962 led to a remarkable turn around in Indo-US relations. The attack from Chinese side surprised and shocked the Indian leaders. A total of two Indian infantry divisions, or less than ten percent of the Indian combat force, faced a thoroughly prepared PLA. The Indian forces were totally unprepared, badly deployed, under-equipped and even without proper clothes. The defeat was total in terms of India’s political standing and its foreign policy. What is notable was the dramatic shift in Indian policy and the liberal military and political support that India received from the US and the West. None of India’s non-aligned partners provided help and few showed any sympathy. Moscow actually temporarily halted the MiG program, siding instead with its socialist friend.  In contrast, the US came through with substantial help. A considerably larger arms package of US $ 373 million was apparently worked out by November 1963 in Washington by Ambassador Chester Bowles and was to have been signed by President Kennedy on 26th of November, 1963. Kennedy said; We should defend India, and therefore Relationship between India and the USA Relationship between India and the USA Abstract This piece of work tries to study the relations of one superpower and another emerging power in international order. The relations of India-US have passed through a roller -coaster character since 1950s. The study is about the Indo-US relations during post Cold-War period. It tries to present in- depth study of the relation between two states, with historical background, major events of the period, US involvement in South Asia/India, its stand on India-Pakistan disputes. It observes about the transition from ‘estranged democracies’ to a ‘strategic partnership’ of the relations. US interests in the region were for many years interpreted as philanthropic rather than commercial or strategic, and the US was closed ally with Pakistan. The study is trying to find out How the neglected country for almost 50 years got top priority and finally turned to be natural ally. The relations have passed through different stage from ‘neither friend nor enemy’, ‘distanced democracies ’, ‘engaged democracies’ and finally as ‘natural allies’ with nuclear partnership. This achievement and transformation is not happened overnight. To achieve these, both countries have passed through different states overtime. The thesis tries to find out some reason behind this quick development in the relations. The transformation happened during post Cold -War period. Behind these transformations some reason such as Indian practice of democratization, open market policy, huge development on economy and IT sector played vital role. Likewise, US goal in the region was fulfilled while making good relations with India. After analysing some major events and immediate reaction, the thesis tries to make an argument that, with other reasons side by side, the nuclear test of 1998 by India was the central theme that helped for the transformations of the relations.   Chapter 1 Introduction and literature review Topic introduction and Purpose of the study After the end of the Cold War, the United States is leading in the International Order, and it is experienced that- this time is American time, its hegemony and policy for liberal democracy, human rights or in any colour or form. So its relations with any other part of the world is itself interesting and important. On the other hand, India is the largest democracy in the world and emerging power in the International order. It is economically and strategically threat to the US, it is tiger in Asia in term of population, economy and nuclear capacity. The relation between the superpower and emerging power is obviously important to the students of International Relations/politics or common people as well. So it is hoped that this research makes some interesting and important line of arguments. â€Å"As the tiger economies of South-east Asia roared away in the 1970s and 1980s, Indias biggest achievements remained its ability to feed its own people, and its adherence against the odds to democracy. Unshackled by the economic liberalisation of the early 1990s, India is already poised to overtake Japan as the worlds third largest economy. The nuclear status of India has been formally acknowledged by the US And, when the UN is finally reformed, its likely to land a permanent seat on the Security Council† (BBC Online, 2009.) For over forty years, the United States has contended with the problem of formatting a coherent policy toward South Asia- a region that contains approximately one-fifth of the world’s population. During this time, US policy has surrounded between interventions and withdrawal.  Detailed analysis of how Washington determines its South Asian policy, especially with regard to the regions two major states: India and Pakistan. The nations of South Asia contain a fifth of the human race. They include one state (India) that is certainly the world’s largest democracy and one other (Pakistan) that has been an intermittent ally of the US since 1953. For over thirty-five years Washington’s policy has shifted uneasily from neglect of the region to intense involvement in its economic, political, and military affairs, seeing in the former certain ideological and moral values and in the latter certain strategic and military advantages. This research tries to fill a gap in understanding of the reasons for American involvement in and policy toward South Asia especially India. The literature on US foreign policy is dominated by relations with the Soviet Union and Western Europe. American relations with Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and South Asia are relatively neglected and episodic in nature. This absence of interest is especially marked in the case of South Asia. Yet, American decisions have profoundly affected the lives of most South Asians, the societies of regional states, and their external policies. It has often been noted that this influence and the relationship is excessively one-sided: American decisions affect South Asians far more than South Asian decisions can ever affect Americans. The purpose of this study is to examine the sources and patters of American responses towards events in India over a period of time, through an examination of some case study. Giving some brief introduction and history of Indo-US security relation after 2nd World War, it talks in detail about the relation during Post Cold War period. After the end of the Cold War, every country around the world effected, but South Asian countries effected more than others. The US has no rival in world order, but India and Pakistan, two countries from the South Asia emerged as new nuclear power. India could not be the state as neglected before. Post Cold- War period saw dramatic changes in US-India relation. Research Focus/Research question The main thrust of this thesis is to present the Indo-US relations during Post Cold War period, to study main events of the period and to explore the reasons behind the transformation in relations. The thesis is focused on the periphery of Post Cold War leading to 9/11. In the short span of time in 1990s how the transformation was possible, how the neglected country for almost 50 years got top priority in American foreign policy, it tries to answer these questions. The thesis tries to make an argument that the nuclear test of 1998 was the central theme that helped for the transformation of the relation. The Indo-US convergence was abruptly interrupted by India’s May 1998 nuclear tests. President Clinton’s initial reaction was simultaneously emotional: ‘To think that you have to manifest your greatness by behaviour that recalls the very worst events of the 20th century on the edge of the 21st century when everybody else is trying to leave the nuclear age behind, is just wrong.’ Because of the fact that both India and Pakistan had been de facto nuclear weapon states, US concerned about the possibility of nuclear war in South Asia, but it was obviously a challenge in Western hegemony as well. Although the US imposed suspension of most military-military contacts, the nuclear tests started a high-level engagements between the US and India. Overtime, the Clinton Administration adapted itself to the reality that India’s great-power aspirations included becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons state. India’s 1998 nuclear explosive test were a blessing in disguise for long-term Indo-US relations. Once the tests exploded the illusion, Washington and New Delhi could get on with the important task of relating to one another on a more equal footing. Methodology The study is based on academic writings such as books, journal and online resources. While using such material a great care has been taken in term of their credibility. The books studied for the research are written by academics mostly of Indian background in origin. Mostly they are educated in American Universities and working there in US Universities. Their academic background and research area is about American foreign policy, Asian studies, Asians security. Likewise the online resources have been used with great care such as produced by the academics and trustworthy organizations like Asia Foundations, governmental bodies and well -known research centres. Though writers are educated and being engaged in US academia, care have been taken while developing arguments from their writing, being India origin, emotional behave might affect on their writing about American or Indian perspective. The thesis also contains three major events which were supposed to play determinative role for the transformations of the relations. Likewise it also collects immediate reaction after the test. For reactions the samples have been collected in three groups. Structure of the thesis The thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction explaining the topic and subject matter, rationale, and methodology. This chapter also includes the literature review. The second chapter traces the history of Indo-US relations. It talks about the US engagement in Asia and India. It simply presents the history of the relation explaining some major events of the period. The third chapter is about the post Cold -War scenarios. It begins with how the US started tilting to India not Pakistan. The change in American policy to South Asia and India begin at this point of time. This chapter explains three major events of the period as case study: Kashmir Issue 1999, nuclear test 1998 and Clinton visit 2002. After this, in Chapter Four to know the immediate reaction after the test, it collects some thoughts expressed in news Medias and thoughts by think tanks especially in the US. How the think-tank and the governments reacted to the test and talked about the bilateral relations.   After analysing three major events and reactions of the governments, think tanks and views expressed on newspaper, Chapter Five, the main part of the thesis makes an argument that it was the nuclear test 1998, which helped to transform the relation. This chapter once again makes a revision of the relation since 1950s. Finally, the thesis contains the conclusion and bibliography. Literature Review: As mentioned above, literature on American foreign policy is easily accessible and available everywhere but regarding the US relations to the South Asian region; book and journals are not available enough as compared to other regions. The literature on US foreign policy is dominated by relations with the Soviet Union and Western Europe. For example, Ambrose S E. (1993) exclusively presents the history of American foreign policy since 1938. Ambrose gives detail survey of American Foreign Policy from the period America was secure in the world-neither of the great totalitarian political forces of the century, Fascism or Communism. The author presents the overview of the evolution of American foreign Policy focusing on major events like World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam War, and the SALT treaties. It also talks about the individual Presidents and their changed attitudes to the different regions. Ambrose begins with the starting years of American Foreign Policy and its strength overtime up to Bush Policy and US engagements in Gulf war. Ambrose presents a chronological history of American Foreign Policy, but this book hardly discusses the development in South Asian region. The author is quite on US engagement in South Asia/India or US involvement in Indian/Pakistani War, Kargil issue As compared to Ambrose, Spanier J (1983) talks about the US and third world (author’s term) developments. Spanier presents an account of American foreign policy from the closing days of World War II to the beginning of the second Regan administration. The author presents interpretation of the roles of the Unites States on the world stage since it became a nuclear superpower. It also talks about the theoretical frameworks of American foreign policy like the American approach to foreign policy, the state system, the American national style, the contrast between systematic and national behaviour. Spainer clearly tries to explore the reason behind World War, its significance and detailed survey of impact of nuclear weapons on the pattern of American-Soviet relations. The author explains in detail about the role of 3rd world during the Cold War to conflict with-and-in-the Third World. Bertsch K. Gary et.al. (1999) collects twelve essays by US educated academics with background study in South Asian studies. Most of the authors are with Indian background, educated and engaged in US intuitions. The write-up reflects their long experiences with their work either academic or institution like US based South Asia Program, Institutes for Defence Studies. The author addresses the broad range of non-proliferation and foreign policy issues that affect Indo-American relations. It not only describes missile control and space cooperation, chemical and biological weapons, and the use of sanctions versus incentives, the individual authors with their expertise knowledge provide practical recommendations for how a stronger and more meaningful dialogue can be established between the policy makers of the world’s two largest democracies. Authors present about the history of Indo-US relations in different perspective like strategic, economic, political, technical aspects but its main focus is to talk about broad insight into India’s relations with the rest of the world in the shadow of India’s 1998 nuclear tests. Likewise Gangulyscobell (2006) present a series of perspectives about US-Indian strategic cooperation. The authors make an effort for the current status and future instructions of the relation. The identify the strategic context for and logic behind Indias emerging security cooperation with the US, the strategic context for and logic behind growing US security cooperation with India, growing bilateral cooperation in the US-led Global War on Terrorism. Likewise, it raises an important issue of the US assessment of Indias role in the anti-terror struggle, Indian assessment of the US worldwide anti-terror effort, Chinese view of the growing security ties between Washington and New Delhi. Likewise it identifies some military-to-military ties between the United States and India, one from the perspective of Washington, and the other from a New Delhi perspective. S. Ganguly et.al. (2006) traces the origins, development and the current state of Indo-US strategic cooperation. The authors access the strategic cooperation of the worlds two largest democracies. They entirely talk about the strategic relation of the two countries. The book provides an assessment of Indo-US relations with a particular focus on the evolution of contemporary bilateral relations, focuses on the current state of military-to-military cooperation. The authors highlight the development of Indo-US defence ties over the last few decades and examine its underlying causes. Likewise they addressees key areas of future strategic cooperation including high technology trade, participation in multilateral peacekeeping operations. S. Ganguly’ (1990) identifies the key issues of how Washington determines its South Asian policy, especially with regard to the region’s two major states: India and Pakistan. Using case studies the author bases his study on US policy in four major South Asian crises: the 1962 India-China War, the India-Pakistan conflicts of 1965 and 1971, and the massive draught of 1966-1967. Ganguly’s research not only talks about the American foreign policy during different presidents in office and major events but also it talks about the theoretical aspect of American foreign policy. It describes analytical perspective of US foreign policy, South Asia and US foreign policy, history of Indo-US relations and Indo-China War, 1965 War, The 1965-67 Crisis, the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war. The author provides the detailed explanation of the major events of the history between two states and mostly incidents are based on American perspective. As mentioned earlier since the region itself did not get priority, so the discussion about the region in world affairs was limited. Only after late 1990s and especially after the nuclear test, the literature on American policy to Asia and India seems growing. One of such discussion is J. Singh (1998). It provides both historical and contemporary analytical insights on a variety of subjects that impose upon a nuclear India. Singh checks out the nuclear reality as it exists today, at the national and international level. He begins with why nuclear weapons are required and what are they all about. It further examines the rationale for the possession of nuclear weapons, detailed history of the Indian nuclear policy formulation between 1964-1998, presents history to trace the origin of nuclear weapons. It also demonstrates about the paths of proliferation and non-proliferation over the last five decades. The author also looks at the increasing proliferation concerns in the Indian neighbourhood, lists out the major proliferation challenges that have emerged after the Cold War. Likewise, it further focuses specially on ballistic missiles and their implications for international security. Likewise it also presents a detailed study of both China and Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and missile programme, examines the traditional Indian position on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, impact of the nuclear test ban on the post-Cold War environment. It gives enough information about the nuclear weapons, their introduction, how they work and why they are required. It also presents the history of nuclear weapons, telling about the nuclear have countries when and how they conducted it. Jain, Rashmi (Ed.) 2006) presents the record of the transition of Indo-US relations from ‘estranged democracies’ to a ‘strategic partnership’ in the 21st century. It is the inclusive and current study of the political, economic/trade, military/defence and nuclear proportions of Indo-US relations from 1947 to 2006. Jain discusses the overall trends in relations between India and the United States during the Cold War and after. It deals with the implications of the American alliance with Pakistan, the extension of limited arms assistance to India following the India-China war of 1962 and support to the Tashkent and Simla agreements, Nixons tilt towards Pakistan during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, India’s nuclear test of 1947. The study contains a selection of 692 basic documents from official sources, including Congressional hearings, and provides the full texts or extracts from various agreements, joint communiquà ©s and statements and interviews by Government dignitaries. It is the collection of official documents related between the relations of two countries for about fifty years. It works as primary source for the researcher. Beside these books, Journal and other reports have been used while conducting the research. Journals like Foreign affairs, International Affairs, Strategic Affairs, and online edition of The Economist and news sites of BBC, CNN, The New York Times and Indian newspapers such as Hindu, the Times of India has been used. Likewise US congress report, governmental publications and the reports published by the Ministry of Indian External Affairs have been used. Chapter 2 Historical Background ‘South Asia and US Foreign Policy-US meets India’ This chapter briefs about the American Foreign Policy and US involvement in South Asia/India. It is an account of US-Indo relations after 1950s to late 1980s. It is not chronological history of the relation, but it includes major events and trends of the time. South Asia comprises a subsystem of powers with two major nations; India and Pakistan that are actually within South Asia and there others, China, the US and the USSR, that are extra-regional players in the region. South Asia also contains other states with minimal military and economical power; Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. By virtue of their global status, the US and the USSR have been involved in South Asia until 1990s. South Asian Countries are often introduced by political instability, a relative diffusion of powers and slow economic development. These characteristics and weakness prompted the two superpowers to fill the apparent power vacuum and to change it in order to strengthen their respective global and regional policies (Ganguly S. 1999.) South Asia has been usually been regarded as only marginally important to the United States. In the major American security decisions regarding the stability of the international system, maintenance of nuclear balance or the problem of war and peace, South Asia was not considered a determining factor. Some reasons can be traced behind less priority of US to South Asia   First, it was not vital strategically; it did not offer any major resources essential to American industry. Second, the low level of economic and political interaction could not generate a positive image of South Asia in the American mind. In American perceptions, the area remained a preserve of British interests. Thus, US interests in the region were for many years interpreted as philanthropic rather than commercial or strategic (R.Arthur, 2006.) The central dilemma of US policy in South Asia since 1947 has been to deal with the competing claims of the two principal states of this region, India and Pakistan. In a sense, the constant dilemma of Americas South Asia Policy is a result of the regional contest between these two states.Of these two Sub continental states, if India was often a unimportant factor in US perception of the global strategic equation, Pakistan was an insignificant factor unless military aligned with the US. The initial US involvement in South Asia was barely influenced by the regional developments.  What did shape the US role was the shrinking British Empire and the rapid decline of the KMT regime in China. Succeeding US military links to South Asia (especially Pakistan), a subsidiary of its concern in relation to the Soviet Union, accidentally emphasized the level of hostility between India and Pakistan. US involvement not only annoyed India but also brought the Soviet Union and later China into the Subcontinent and made the region an arena of Cold war politics (Ganguly S, 1990.) In many ways, US involvement in India started during World War II, before this both officials and unofficial contacts with India were minimal. While the US maintained a few consular officers in India to look after commercial interests, it relied largely on British Foreign Office communications for information on the Indian political situation. The US really became involved in South Asia after its entry into World War II. British India served at that time as a spring –board for allied military operations against the Japanese in China and Southeast Asia. India’s relations with the Unites States have been described variously as ‘estranged democracies’ and distance powers by Americans. Indian have tended to describe it as ‘distanced democracies’, ‘engaged democracies’ and finally as ‘natural allies’. Another common refrain often articulated from India, describes the United States as the oldest and most powerful democracy and itself as the largest. The expectation from both sides appears to have been that ‘democracy’ will somehow transcend national interests and security imperatives and shape the relationship (B.Dipankar, 2006.) Relations between India and the US have varied widely over the last sixty-five years and adopted a roller-coaster character with many ups and downs and high and lows. In recent years India –US relations has transformed into what both sides claim to be a strategic partnership. Even as both countries move towards that desirable goal, it is useful to recall that divergences in perceptions and policies have varied widely over the years. At the end of the Second World War the Unites States emerged as the undisputed leader of the free world. Its lead in almost every area of consequence remains unchallenged for decades. All its possible peers were largely destroyed by the war and indeed needed Washington’s help to revive themselves. The United States did not just dominate the emerging world order, but had the opportunity to shape it by laying out its figures and establishing the international institutions that would determine its future. Within a few years of the War’s end, the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc emerged as the only group that could conceivably challenge this order, but only in a limited military sense. For India, the immediate concerns were different. It was to emerge from colonialism and external domination as an independent entity. It had first to fully assert its independence, in which it only got success partially as the nation itself was split into India and Pakistan addressing the region to internal conflict for decades. India’s identity and nationalism had to be developed an additional based on its own values and heritage and its territories needed to be consolidated. In addition to these concerns, a modern state had to be created almost from the beginning with all its associated institutions. (C. Raja Mohan 2003) To achieve these immediate goals, India needed a peaceful external environment, uncomplicated by the rivalries of the global power struggle. New Delhi needed to craft a policy that would provide it a meaningful and autonomous role in a future world, in keeping with its own size potential and aspiration. In accordance with these needs it choose a policy of ‘non-alignment’. The term itself was much misunderstood in the world, and particularly in the US. India, perhaps justifiably, never fully explained its position, leading many in the west to ask, ‘non-aligned against what; good and evil?’(R.Bahukutumbi, 1996.) What Nehru opined was a policy that would enable India to take independent positions on international issues without being tied down by alliances and ideological constraints. The central theme was not to get drawn in to military entanglements with major powers. He also hoped this would open up the possibility for India to adopt a position of some leadership of the emerging world. Many practical difficulties emerged, which hindered the implementations of this policy over the years. Over time, other countries also decided to remain ‘non-aligned’. On global issues, non-alignment often meant aligning against the west. Overall this policy prohibited the possibility of a military relationship with any country or grouping. This policy, and differences in world view, became a major barrier to an Indo-US military relationship throughout the Cold War (Ganguly S, 1990.) Indo-US diplomatic relations go back to the presidency of George Washington when Benjamin Joy was appointed to the position of US Consul in Calcutta, the then Indian Capital in 1792. Nothing of note happened until April 1941. When Girija Shakar Bajpai was appointed the first Agent General of India in Washington DC and Thomas Wilson shifted as US Commissioner from Calcutta to New Delhi. At that time President Roosevelt understood that a successful pursuit of the war against the Axis powers required India’s willing support and cooperation. Roosevelt’s support for Indian independence and concern about continuing British rule had left a favourable impression on Indians (Chari PR 1999.) Churchill’s refusal to contemplate a serious change in British imperial policy compelled the Indian National Congress to launch the Quit India movement in 1942. The Congress leaders believed that only an India that was promised freedom after the war could voluntarily join the war against fascism. Instead, the British responded by locking up most senior Congress political leaders. In spite of this, India’s participation in the Second World War was remarkable by any standards. Over two and a half million soldiers, each a volunteer, fought with Allied armies in many of the major threats of the global conflict. This contribution was particularly salient in the Burma front, without which the outcome would have been considerably less certain. In addition to the roughly half-million soldiers from India and the British Commonwealth in this theatre, the Allied forces were joined by troops representing the Nationalist Chinese, many Africans and, by the war’s end, some 250,000 US soldiers (Sigh 2005.) This enormous US troop contribution was easily its largest military-to-military relationship in South Asia. US forces provided the bulk of logistics support, flew substantial numbers of air sorties across uncharted routes in unstable aircraft, and ensured that the Kuomintang forces remained in the war against Japan in China. In addition, there was also the enormous Brooklyn air conditioning plant near Kolkata, the largest in Asia at the time that stored and supplied food to all Allied forces in the East (Banerjee, D 2000.) It might have been expected that this state relations would continue after Indian independence. Instead, the Cold war intervened. India was partitioned and a separate state, Pakistan came into existence in 1947. During the Cold War, the pressure of strategic imperatives often widened the disjuncture between the hope and the reality resulting in hurtful Indo-US relations. The US support to Pakistan on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the United Nations in 1948-49, and initiation of military support to Pakistan in 1954, shed a binding shadow on the relationship. The United States wanted to join as many states as possible in its war against communism, often in a formal strategic relationship. India viewed the logic of American alliances as directly breaking its own interests. India was convinced that American military support had encouraged Pakistan to wage war against it in 1965. This happened again during Indo-Pak war in 1971, when the US gave warnings to India and sent the USS Enterprise of its 7th Fleet into the Bay of Bengal. The United States perceived India’s policy of non-alignment as self-righteous and considered its neutrality far from neutral, citing examples of its silence over the Soviet invasion of Hungary and Czechosloskavia in 1968 (Dasgupta 2002.) In mid 1961 India agreed to buy the MiG-21 aircraft from the Soviet Union. This was offered on such munificent terms that neither Great Britain, nor France nor the US could come up with a comparable offer even if they wanted to match it. Thus, began a long and enduring Indo-Soviet arms relationship (Ganguly S, 1990.) The very strong Indian reaction to the evolving Pakistan-US military alliance was perhaps not anticipated in Washington. In any case, by now India’s image in the US had plunged and New Delhi‘s concerns were not a factor in US decision making. Indo-US relations remained frozen in a sate of suspended hostility until 1962. The Chinese aggression on India in Oct-Nov 1962 led to a remarkable turn around in Indo-US relations. The attack from Chinese side surprised and shocked the Indian leaders. A total of two Indian infantry divisions, or less than ten percent of the Indian combat force, faced a thoroughly prepared PLA. The Indian forces were totally unprepared, badly deployed, under-equipped and even without proper clothes. The defeat was total in terms of India’s political standing and its foreign policy. What is notable was the dramatic shift in Indian policy and the liberal military and political support that India received from the US and the West. None of India’s non-aligned partners provided help and few showed any sympathy. Moscow actually temporarily halted the MiG program, siding instead with its socialist friend.  In contrast, the US came through with substantial help. A considerably larger arms package of US $ 373 million was apparently worked out by November 1963 in Washington by Ambassador Chester Bowles and was to have been signed by President Kennedy on 26th of November, 1963. Kennedy said; We should defend India, and therefore