When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush announced a nuclear pact on July 18, 2005 in Washington, the world was stunned. Alarm bells rang in China and Pakistan and the non-proliferation community across the world attacked Bush for recognising India as a nuclear weapon state and offering full civilian nuclear energy cooperation.

It examines the factors that led the Bush Administration in 2005 to propose a change the nuclear rules in favour of India. Offering a ring side view of the Indo-U.S.

negotiations that led to the nuclear pact, Raja Mohan examines the difficulties that cropped up in both the countries and between them in implementing the nuclear pact. The nuclear pact is not just about resolving the long-standing differences on non-proliferation.

It marks a rediscovery of mutual strategic relevance by New Delhi and Washington.

In Impossible Allies, Raja Mohan examines the objective factors that are driving India and the United States into each other’s arms and inherited political burdens that hold them back. What emerges is a fascinating diplomatic tale of two great democracies trying to construct a relationship that could change the world.