Abstract
President Obama threw American support behind India’s candidacy to join the United Nations Security Council in a speech before the Indian Parliament in New Delhi earlier this month. Clearly, India deserves a permanent seat on the Council as the world’s largest democracy and a nuclear power to boot. And clearly, no state can hope to ascend to the Council without U.S. support. But it is also true that tossing a stone into this pond creates ever-wider geo-political ripples.