Afghanistan as a Theatre for the new Great Game: India’s Adaptive Realism in The Emerging Multipolar order

Afghanistan remains a pivotal geopolitical arena were global and regional powers contest influence and connectivity. This study fills an analytical gap in existing literature by demonstrating how India’s post-2021 engagement with Afghanistan represents a case of adaptive realism—a recalibrated pursuit of strategic autonomy shaped by the pressures of an emerging multipolar order. Previous research often reduced India’s role to soft power and reconstruction; this paper advances an integrated explanation linking systemic, regional, and domestic factors that drive India’s pragmatic foreign-policy shifts. Drawing upon realism, neorealism, and strategic-autonomy frameworks, and using qualitative analysis of policy documents, official statements, and scholarly research from 2021–2024, the study reveals that India’s Afghanistan policy has evolved from normative idealism to a multidimensional, interest-driven pragmatism. Empirically, it identifies India’s balancing through humanitarian aid, multilateral diplomacy, and connectivity initiatives such as Chabahar, while avoiding formal recognition of the Taliban. The findings contribute original insight into how emerging powers sustain strategic relevance within a fluid, multipolar system.