The factors that have affected India's policies include the international system, regional military developments and crises, leadership styles and interests, internal bureaucratic politics, and the relationship between the use of diplomacy and the use of force. The two main options have been to look inward, using land power and diplomacy, and to look outward, using sea power. Under Nehru, these choices were ignored, and up to and including the 1971 Bangladesh war, the approach to defense issues was reactive. India's approach has been reluctantly to secure the development first of land power and air power, then sea power, and, finally, nuclear missile power. Decisionmaking has shifted from an ideologically closed system to a depersonalized, institutional system that requires multiple inputs into the decisionmaking process. In addition, regional and extra-regional dimensions are now central in Indian thinking and behavior, while the globalist approach is relevant as a statement of aspirations. Current policy dilemmas relate to Pakistan, China, and nuclear development. Notes