PERSPECTIVE Towards A New NATO Strategic Concept A View from India VARUN SAHNI October 2010 During the Cold War years, India was the only major liberal democracy that kept its distance from the US-led security community. Two decades after the end of the Cold War, India is now developing strong security relationships with several major countries in the Atlantic Alliance. India has always resisted playing the democracy card in its foreign relations. India is mentioned in the k^ql=OMOM document in only four places, and each time in a different context: as an emerging global power, as a major power in the Asia-Pacific region, as a source of instability in Asia and as an Asian democracy. The new Strategic Concept lists seven factors that aggravate uncertainty and therefore may emerge as major threats and challenges. Each of these factors also poses major security challenges for India. The word»disarmament« does not appear even once in the k^ql=OMOM document. This does not reflect the new realist commonsense that is emerging on nuclear disarmament, nor does it accommodate US President Barack Obama’s call in Prague in April 2009»to put an end to Cold War thinking« with regard to nuclear weapons. The document is overly self-congratulatory and does not adequately account for some of the existential issues, internal and external, that the Atlantic Alliance will perforce have to contend with and resolve in the coming years.