Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations hosted a panel discussion on Understanding India’s Policy Landscape: Insights from the Survey of India on Friday, March 6, 2026 from 12:00-1:30 pm in Herbert Hoover Memorial Pavilion, Room 160.
In this discussion, we will explore the complexities of India’s policy landscape, drawing on themes highlighted in the Hoover Annual Survey of India 2026. Our goal is to illuminate how various factors interact and shape India's policy decisions on critical issues such as defense policy, foreign policy, and economic development, among other key topics. This dialogue promises to provide valuable insights into India’s trajectory and its implications for international collaboration.
About the Speakers
Šumit Ganguly is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and director of its Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations. He is also the Rabindranath Tagore Professor in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Emeritus, at Indiana University in Bloomington, where he served as distinguished professor and professor of political science and directed programs on India studies and on American and global security.
Nirvikar Singh is Co-Director of the Center for Analytical Finance at UCSC (of which he was the founding Director), and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economics, Management and Religion. From 2010 to 2020, he held the Sarbjit Singh Aurora Chair of Sikh and Punjabi Studies at UCSC. At UCSC, he has previously directed the South Asian Studies Initiative, and served as Director of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor.
Emily Tallo is an incoming postdoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security andCooperation at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. in political science with a specialization in international relations at the University of Chicago in August 2025. Her research agenda examines the patterns of contestation and consensus between political leaders and their advisers, politicians, and bureaucrats over foreign policy. Emily’s dissertation, “Organizing Mistrust: How Leaders Navigate Bureaucratic Resistance on Foreign Policy,” explored when and why leaders strategically organize foreign policy bureaucracies. Her other projects relate to how political elites structure foreign policy debates in democratic countries, especially in South Asia.
Arzan Tarapore is a visiting fellow whose research focuses on Indian foreign and defense policy and international security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. He is completing his first book on Indian military strategy, and his policy analysis in 2025–26 will focus on how members of the Quad can deepen strategic cooperation. He previously held research and teaching positions at the US Army War College, Georgetown University, the East-West Center in Washington, the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, and the RAND Corporation.
Larry Diamond is the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He is also professor by courtesy of political science and sociology at Stanford, where he lectures and teaches courses on democracy (including an online course on EdX).
