India as Kingmaker: Status Quo or Revisionist Power: Michael O. Slobodchikoff and Aakriti A. Tandon, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2022

The two authors of the book under review are academics at separate campuses in the United States, with the first having to his credit previously published books in international and strategic affairs. In their collaborative effort, the authors have chosen to draw attention to the perceived challenge being posed to the existing world order—a creation of the Western alliance led by the United States. Important members of the alliance—Britain, France, Germany and Japan—favour continuity of the existing order. They have been labelled as status quo powers. China and Russia, the main partners of the ‘Eastern coalition’, are being increasingly viewed as challengers to this world order, which makes them revisionist powers. They wish to revise the world order to their advantage. It is not an entirely easy task to place India—a rising power—in this grand tussle between revisionist and status quo powers for controlling and shaping the world order, given its non-aligned legacy. The authors expect that India will play a dominant role in shaping the outcome of the grand tussle. Hence, it could emerge as a kingmaker.