"A weakening global order creates opportunities for middle powers to act as stabilisers." Examine this in the context of India's foreign policy.

Middle powers are states that neither command the international system nor submit to it. They gain room to act as great-power rivalry, wars and coercive trade measures wear down the rules-based order. At Davos in January 2026, Canadian PM Mark Carney called this "a rupture, not a transition" and urged middle powers to act together [1]. India's strategic autonomy fits it well for this stabilising role, though its capacity has limits.

How a weakening order opens space

• Paralysed multilateralism: a deadlocked UN Security Council leaves gaps that coalitions of the willing can fill. India argues the Council still reflects a 1945 outlook [5].
• Fewer bloc pressures: in a multipolar world, swing states gain bargaining power with every side.
• De-risking of supply chains: firms diversifying away from single sources raise the economic weight of large, stable economies like India.

India as a stabiliser: the evidence

• Consensus-builder: the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration (2023) was agreed despite divisions over Ukraine. It also made the African Union a permanent member [2].
• Voice of the Global South: the first Voice of Global South Summit (2023) brought together 125 countries and fed their priorities into the G20 agenda [3].
• First responder: under Operation Dost (2023), India sent NDRF teams and an Army field hospital to earthquake-hit Türkiye and Syria [4].
• Multi-alignment: India sits in the Quad and in BRICS and the SCO at the same time. This lets it bridge the West and the Global South.

Constraints

• Capacity gaps: low per-capita income and dependence on defence imports limit how much India can project power.
• Institutional exclusion: India has no permanent UNSC seat, and the reform negotiations have stalled for years [5].
• Strategic pressures: the unsettled China border and an unstable neighbourhood absorb diplomatic attention.
• Credibility test: some partners read strategic autonomy as fence-sitting on contested issues.

Overall, a fragmenting order does give India a real stabilising role, built on its convening power, humanitarian reach and trust across blocs. The way forward is to build economic and defence capacity, form issue-based coalitions with other middle powers, and push for reformed multilateralism. India's G20 theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam [2] and the partnership goal of SDG 17 can guide it from balancing between blocs to shaping the rules.