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India’s Afghan Muddle: A Policy in Disarray is a political commentary on India’s foreign policy towards Afghanistan. Summary of the Book Harsh V. Pant writes about India’s views towards Afghanistan and how these views have affected India’s own vital interests. The book studies the changing nature of India’s foreign policy, offering arguments that New Delhi continues to respond to a strategic environment shaped by unrelated factors instead of developing an autonomous stance. The book explains that India’s refusal to be proactive has made it lose the initiative and this has in turn damaged India’s own interests for a long time to come. Some of these interests are access to the energy-rich central Asian region, foiling Pakistan and the Taliban’s machinations of once again rising into prominence in Afghanistan. 2014 is the year which will demonstrate the effects India’s decisions will have on its security, now that western forces are withdrawing. In one of Afghanistan’s most important years since 2001, this book opens up the debate on how India also faces a crucial time as it waits for the reactions towards its foreign policies. About Harsh V. Pant Harsh V. Pant is a lecturer at the Department of Defence Studies, King's College, London. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He has also written Contemporary Debates in Indian Foreign and Security Policy and Indian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World.