SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore DOI: 10.1177/002088170904500404 Notes and Comments India’s Economic Diplomacy at the World Trade Organization

India has adopted a policy of pragmatic engagement with multilateral economic organizations in recent years. In the context of India’s economic diplomacy at the World Trade Organization (WTO), where it is seen as one of the major voices of dissent from the developing world, a shift in its traditional posturing is clearly evident. This article seeks to interpret the shift both in the context of structural changes within the WTO and the changing goals of India’s economic policy. In view of the stalemate at the Doha round of negotiations, the article argues that multi-lateral organizations like the WTO need to recognize the role of domestic lobbies and trans-national civil society networks in shaping the aspirations of emerging economies like India. Multilateral economic institutions (MEI) play a significant role in shaping contemporary political and economic interactions across the globe. By their very nature, MEIs embody the collective aspirations of sovereign states. They derive their authority and legitimacy from the willingness of states to concede part of their sovereign decision-making power to such multilateral bodies. In the post World War II period, MEIs had a clear mandate to resurrect the global political economy from the ravages of the war and set up a system of rules