International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

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Friendly Coercion: Tariffs, Sanctions and Geopolitical Override in India–US Strategic Relations (2018–2026)

Author(s) Mr. Kallakuri Sri Meher Krishna
Country India
Abstract It is predicted by the prevailing International Political Economy (IPE) framework of complex interdependence that political coercion is constrained by deepening economic ties. This logic appears to be exemplified by the India–US strategic partnership, with bilateral trade exceeding USD 149 billion in 2025. Yet between 2018 and 2026, tariffs, secondary sanctions, and trade threats were repeatedly deployed by the United States to compel India's strategic alignment with USA, with New Delhi being pressured to halt Iranian oil imports, reduce Russian energy purchases, and abandon its Digital Services Tax. The concept of geopolitical override is introduced by this article a condition in which the terms of low-political economic engagement are systematically determined by high-political imperatives, and the liberal expectation that trade constrains conflict is reversed. Drawing on original trade data from India's Ministry of Commerce TradeStat and three embedded case studies, it is argued by the article that tariffs and sanctions have been evolved into instruments of strategic coercion, deployed not merely against adversaries but against strategic partners. This phenomenon termed friendly coercion is used to extend Farrell and Newman's (2019) weaponised interdependence framework into partnership contexts, and the assumption that strategic alignment guarantees preferential economic treatment is challenged. It is demonstrated by the findings that sensitivity effects, but limited vulnerability effects, are produced by geopolitical override, as the effectiveness of US coercion was constrained by India's adaptive capacity and diversified trade portfolio.
Keywords geopolitical override, weaponised interdependence, India–US relations, friendly coercion, tariffs, sanctions
Field Arts
Published In Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On 2026-08-12
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.85604
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CrossRef DOI prefix of IJFMR is 10.36948/ijfmr

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