DCU President Professor Daire Keogh with His Excellency Akhilesh Mishra, Indian Ambassador to Ireland.

DCU Press celebrates the launches of its first publication, Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947 – 2023

01/02/2024

DCU President Professor Daire Keogh with His Excellency Akhilesh Mishra, Indian Ambassador to Ireland

Ireland’s first open-access university press removes barriers to accessing research

DCU Press has today launched their first publication: Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947 – 2023 by authors Professor Subrata K. Mitra, Dr Jivanta Schottli and Dr Markus Pauli.

This new publishing imprint, a joint initiative between DCU Library and the University’s Office of the Vice-President of Research, is Ireland’s first open-access university press. DCU Press provides free, immediate global access to new DCU academic publications online, with a print-on-demand service also available through partners UCL Press.

Speaking ahead of the book launch, President of DCU Professor Dáire Keogh said:

DCU Press is the first initiative of its kind in the Irish Higher Education sector and marks a significant milestone for the University. By offering open-access publications to a global audience, our new imprint has the potential to greatly extend the reach and impact of our research. I am glad to say that the quality, scope and ambition of the DCU Press project is suitably reflected in its inaugural publication, Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947 – 2023.

From left: Prof Derek Hand, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Prof John Doyle, Vice President for Research; His Excellency Mr Akhilesh Mishra, Indian Ambassador to Ireland; Dr Jivanta Schottli, Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at the School of Law and Government; DCU President Professor Daire Keogh; Prof Subrata K. Mitra, adjunct professor at DCU and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany; Gwenda Jeffreys-Jones, Regional Direct

From left: Prof Derek Hand, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; Prof John Doyle, Vice President for Research; Dr Jivanta Schottli, Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at the School of Law and Government; DCU President Professor Daire Keogh; His Excellency Mr Akhilesh Mishra, Indian Ambassador to Ireland; Prof Subrata K. Mitra, adjunct professor at DCU and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany; Gwenda Jeffreys-Jones, Regional Director Asia Pacific Unit, Department of Foreign Affairs; Dr Markus Pauli, Assistant Professor in Political Science at the School of Law and Government; University Librarian John McDonough.

DCU Press provides free book publishing for DCU authors, with proposals reviewed by an editorial board chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Derek Hand. Their rigorous peer review process also includes reviews from external subject experts. At the launch of their first book, University Librarian and Director of Library Services John McDonough explained the aims for the project:

The future of scholarly publishing is open and the Library has worked to ensure DCU’s research outputs have maximum global visibility and impact.

Author Prof Subrata K. Mitra, adjunct professor at DCU and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany.

Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947 – 2023 explores India’s rise as an economic and political power on the global stage, and the domestic and geopolitical theories that influence the country’s statecraft and foreign policy. The book was written by Professor Subrata K. Mitra, adjunct professor at DCU and Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Heidelberg University, Germany; Dr Jivanta Schottli, Assistant Professor in Indian Politics and Foreign Policy at the School of Law and Government, and Dr Markus Pauli, Assistant Professor in Political Science at the School of Law and Government.

Ahead of the book’s launch, Dr Jivanta Schottli said:

Today, India positions itself closer to the West, while remaining a leader amongst non-Western countries. Our book examines the legacies of the past and the aspirations for the future, and how these translate into foreign policy.

Also speaking ahead of the book’s launch, political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, professor at New York University, called Statecraft and Foreign Policy: India, 1947 – 2023 “a tour de force that will define how we think of India in global politics for decades to come”.

For more information, and to download a free PDF of the book, please visit the DCU Press website at dcupress.dcu.ie.