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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

A middle power defence synergy is on the rise. Don’t let it become another ‘Global South’

‘Middle power’ can be taken to mean almost anything. Then there is the question of agency. Does a country call itself a middle power, or do others label it as one?

Isn’t ‘middle power’ a bit like ‘slightly pregnant’?” I heard a colleague chuckle during a coffee break after my third conference on middle powers in as many weeks. It is a fair question—what exactly is this sudden fixation with middle powers? More importantly, what does the phrase even mean?

Is it a measure of economic size? Military capability? Population? A country’s willingness to keep its options open? Or is it merely a polite way of describing states that matter enough to be invited to the table but not enough to decide the menu? Lately, “middle power” has acquired the remarkable ability to mean almost anything.

Then there is the question of agency. Is a middle power something a country calls itself, or something others call it?

India is perhaps a good example of the ambiguity. Much of the global strategic community happily describes India as a middle power. India, on the other hand, seems rather unhappy with the categorisation. Depending on who one listens to, India is a rising power, a leading power, a pivotal power, or an emerging great power. The semantics change, but ground realities do not.

Everybody seems convinced ‘the middle’ is suddenly where history is unfolding. The more one listens to disarrayed discussions on middle powers, the more one is reminded of the Stealers Wheel song: “Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”

The renewed engagement owes much to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech earlier this year. A Canadian colleague later told me that Carney had been preparing the speech for nearly a year, though its timing was as crucial as its content. Trumperica’s shocks to allies and partners, deepening militarisation, and growing uncertainty about the intent and durability of American security commitments resonated widely.

For the record, middle power is not a novel concept. The term acquired prominence during the 1970s and 1980s to describe countries such as Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Norway—states that were neither superpowers nor insignificant actors, but capable of exercising influence through diplomacy and institution-building. Over time, the club expanded to include South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, and Mexico. The concept of Middle powers has never been static; it has always reflected the anxieties of a particular international order.

In addition to Trump turbulence, we also live in an era where almost everything has become weaponised: energy supplies, rare earths, shipping lanes, financial systems, data,........

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