BOOK REVIEW ON NEPAL

AND THE GREAT POWERS

PRATIK SHAHI
16010967
Nepal and The Great Powers is a book about Nepal’s its relations with great powers like India
china us France Germany and Australia. Dr. Pramod Jaiswal from Nepal is the editor of this
book and a phd graduate from School of International Studies, JNU. Similarly, he is also the
author of ‘Nepal- China Relations, 1990-2009 whereas Binod Kumar Singh, Asha
Sundaramurthy, Buddhi Sharma, Erika Cornelius Smith ,Kalpana Khanal, Khadga KC , Shree
Krishna Silwal, Drew Cottle, Paul Antonopolous, Sunil Thapa, Gaurav Bhattarai, Mohan
Krishna Shrestha, Niha Pandey, Prasanta Kumar Sahu and Shikha Gautam are the Witter of this
book. This book has been published by synergy books India, new Delhi which is the first edition
and was published in 2019

In the first chapter termed ‘”Dynamics of Nepal- India Relations” the author Binod Kumar Singh
has stated the unique relationship of Nepal and India where the author has stated how India has
helped Nepal in sectors like water resources, defense , power cooperation sand educations as
well as Nepal’s cooperation in Gurkha army’s and water and power resources. As well as china’s
influence in both countries to maintain chains security and control in south Asia and how it has
shaped Nepal, china and India relationship. However in the recent decade Nepalese has notice
huge influence of India in Nepal own internal matter as a result Chinese influence has slowly
grown in Nepal but the author has stated that the relationship build on history, culture and social
ethos may prove more durable than one based on contractual, economic and strategically
beneficial parameters which I my opinion will be right in the future. “Looking Beyond Aid in
Australia Nepal Relations” written by Asha Sundaramurthy has been divided into two sections
in which the first part the exciting facets of the Australia and Nepal relationship is analyzed and
in second part its states the growing convergences between Australia and Nepal in their strategic
consideration of rising powers, which are India and china. Even Nepal being a landlock country
and Australia being the biggest island country the n=bilateral ties between the nation goes back
to 1960. Australia being a allies of use and Nepal being one of the country who didn’t picked any
side between USSR and USA , the whole world had Nepal’s attention similarly Australia also
did , as the Nepal had the highest aid from Australia during time were as it has decrease ever
since. Ever since the convergence between Australia and Nepal has been fairly limits. Australia
focus on the two neighbors of Nepal has been the focal of foreign policy strategy between the
two nation. And from the topic looking beyond aid in Australia Nepal relations there hasn’t been
much of a relationship. Nepal-china relations: tortoise motion reaching comprehensive
destination is the third chapter of this book in which writer buddhi Sharma has given us the ties
between Nepal and china, how it develops and where it is now. With china’s no interferences
policy, china has indirect gain the attention of the Nepalese and has made gradual comprehensive
stand. As Nepal has an on and off relationship with china, due to the influence of India and
western power. Besides influencing relationship of Nepal china , they have also had interest in
creating instability in Nepal and targeting to attack politically in china’s autonomous region
Tibet. But after the economic blockade by India and the election of KP Sharma oli as prime
minister the relationship between the Nepal and china has been stronger. During the visit by
prime minister oli 10 separate agreement and memorandums of understanding on using the
northern seaport, railway, transmission line, etc. Has been signed which is great news of Nepal
china relation and Nepal agreement on BRI project of china. With this Nepal can fasten its
relational with china and maintain balance cooperation between the two giant nations. In this
chapter the author has analyses military power, economic power and cultural relations in the
context of the heightened anxiety of the cold war and similar the post-world war. The ties
between Nepal and USA dates back in the late 1940 after the end of the rana family rule over
Nepal. The use based its foreign policy objectives I Nepal on the two main premises one being
that the people of Nepal wanted to experience change in their living condition and second being
to prevent Nepal from becoming a hot spot of rivalry between India and china. The major
interest of USA toward Nepal was its geopolitical location and believed that Nepal’s
independence and territorial integrity were critical for the security of south Asia. The us also
feared communism would rise in Nepal as poor people could be tool for its upbringing so the us
focused on the economic development of Nepal. Us the relationship with Nepal has mainly been
to stop communism in Nepal and to maintain Nepal as a buffer state between two major global
power. In the fifth chapter Chinas Foreign AID to Nepal: An Assessment according to the author
the China’s interest and involvement in Nepal are perhaps greater than Beijing claims, but also
significantly more modest than India fears. Nepal and china have signed several development
patronship in which it has develop highways, bridges, hospital and other infrastructure. After
2000 major cooperation areas like Hydro Power, Infrastructure building, construction of dry
ports, connectivity (road projects, transportation, technology), humanitarian aid, education
(technical schools), technical assistance and infrastructure building in security agencies has also
been made. In the chapter 6 Nepal and the Great Rivalry between china and India, the influence
of the two big nations has been shown were the rivalry between these nations has made Nepal a
ground for utter domination as Nepal has great geopolitical value. Nepal and boratian has have
the long relationship among all the western states, Britain having ruled India till late 1940s has
have a good relationship with Nepal but in recent times the relationship must been as strong as in
2015 Britain and India gave a joint statement about Nepal constitution. Nepal and France have
had a very long relationship in which art and culture have been shared. The relationship between
Nepal and France is of true friendship and mutual understanding.

The book overall is very informatic and provide detail into the relationship between some of the
great nations like china, India , USA, France, Australia, UK and Germany. The book has been
divided into different chapter and topic which has made it easier to read and understand but the
book lack uniformity in the style of English some author has used simple a English were as some
author mostly I the second chapter have used difficult words. The book has presented good
argument in terms of international relations, but lack clarity about the Nepal’s opinion as a
country. As mostly the text is history based with little explanation about the facts, the argument
is lacking like why is china not as interested as India is about Nepal. The importance between the
nations and future relations also. The strong point about this book is that it has given huge
importance to facts and past relations whereas the weak point are that the book lack argument
and the author view on the topic and where they stands and the length of the book is also too
short whereas not all great countries have been featured in this book. Countries like Russia and
japan who are great nations have not been mentions.by reading this book we can get great the
idea of Nepal and its relationship with great nation, but it should include more graet nation and
present more arguments.

In my opinion the book is a good read and if you want to know about Nepal and its relationship
with great powers . This book has presented accurate facts and has given brief history and its
importance of every nation and topic which I very helpful. This book has surely provided me
knowledge about Nepal’s relationship with other great powerful countries and broaden by
knowledge and interest Nepal relationship with other countries. If you want to understand Nepal
s foreign policy and its relationship with other countries than I would highly recommend this
book