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Why trust in international relations needs to be incentivised

India’s foreign policy is replete with partnerships that reflect a more material and realist conception of trust.

World affairs has, of late, entered an age of transactional diplomacy. Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, inter-state relations have increasingly been shaped by immediate quid pro quos, hard bargaining, and strict reciprocity rather than enduring commitments. Yet the more striking, and far less appreciated, reality is that many strategic partnerships have not only endured but remained resilient through periods of friction, including the one between India and the United States. 

Their durability points to a broader reality. In an increasingly uncertain and anarchic international system, trust remains a quietly effective operating principle of international relations, appearing with striking frequency in joint statements and official speeches. But this is not the trust born of goodwill alone. Rather, it is forged through credible commitments, institutionalised cooperation, sustained functional linkages, and mutually beneficial exchanges that give states enduring reasons to stay the course. As wars, geopolitical rivalry, and tariff disputes unsettle even the closest of partners, trust emerges not as a moral virtue or a luxury reserved for periods of stability, but as a strategic asset painstakingly built through repeated cooperation amid conflict, uncertainty, and hedging.

Trust should not be judged as an esoteric concept in international relations but one best understood through a realist lens — less an ethical aspiration than a strategic instrument of statecraft. Investing in trust is therefore a matter of rational calculation, not normative sentiment. As trust increasingly becomes the language of partnerships, the primary takeaway is clear. Trust endures only when states have compelling reasons and concrete incentives to cooperate, and when trusted partnerships consistently generate tangible strategic and material returns.

Trust is built, not borrowed 

India’s foreign policy is replete with partnerships that reflect a more material and realist conception of trust. The India-Japan strategic partnership demonstrates that trust is forged less through rhetoric than through sustained cooperation in defence, economic security, technology, and........

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