India’s strategy towards the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka shifted over the course of the conflict from a strategy of diffusion to a strategy of mediation and then finally to a strategy of suppression—each strategy marking a distinct phase in the conflict. While India’s strategy shifted at different phases in the Sri Lankan conflict, the foundation on which the strategies were based—considerations of national security—remained constant. The central argument of the article is that consideration of national security, in both its internal and external dimensions, has been the main driver of India’s strategy towards the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka. The empirical analysis confirms the strength of the realist dictum that national interest understood primarily in terms of national security plays the pivotal role in states’ foreign policy behaviour.
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