The world has changed dramatically since the time when India's identification with the Soviet camp automatically meant a countervailing US-Pakistan-China axis. Today's unipolar world allows no such easy solutions, and nations now forge shifting alliances. With Russia so weak, the US has no need to bolster Pakistan against India.

The Yugoslav war has brought home to China the fact that the West will not hesitate to use its power when needed. A humiliated Russia has mooted a Russia-India-China axis to counter the might of the West. India needs to make the most of this upheaval in geopolitics. She must realise that while she has permanentinterests, she has no permanent friends.

We need the West's capital for economic development, and they need our markets. Russia and China need us for their own ends, and we need them for ours. The fact of the matter is, while India has the potential to be a global player on the geopolitical stage, Pakistan does not. Hence the need to formulate new strategies for a changed world.

But it is also true that the potential needs to be translated into ground reality. For that to happen, we have to change long-held perceptions. It is a sad commentary on our public relations capabilities that we haven't even been able to drive home the point that while Pakistan is a sectarian state, ours is a secular one.

The world needs to be told clearly that our conflict with Pakistan is not about Kashmir, but about two very different ideologies -- one modern and secular, the other professing to be based on the primacy of one particular religion. Needless to add, the high-flown Islamic rhetoric is merely a convenient coverfor keeping the masses of Pakistan under the control of a predominantly feudal and military elite.

The trouble with us is that we haven't bothered to sell our point of view to the West. We need more and more officials to go to the US and the West, pointing out our common secular and democratic heritage. The Indian elite speaks the same language and has been brought up on the same values as its counterpart in the West, and it is easy to find common ground. Add to that the opening up of some of our lucrative markets, such as insurance, and international support for Pakistani terrorism will start to evaporate.