This paper inquires theoretically into how leaders act and react to the state role of rising power through the case study of India. It brings together role theory and leadership trait analysis, and contends that there is a puzzling interplay between rising status and leaders’ characteristics. We project that leaders’ traits and styles condition how they enact roles. India and its leaders offer a suitable case for investigating this issue. Since the economically unstable early 1990s, India has gone through a relatively successful era of global emergence. Thus, we examine the relationship between India’s roles and the leadership profiles of Prime Ministers Atal Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Narenda Modi, specifically their belief in the ability to control events and the need for power. We find especially in Vajpayee and Singh that their traits can help explain India’s foreign policy roles and in Modi (first term only) a leader vulnerable to contextual winds. We argue that the interplay of leaders’ traits and roles, as expressions of both material and social dimensions, helps assess how they make sense of their country’s rising within both the regional and international systems.

本文通过对印度的案例研究，从理论上探讨了领导人如何行动和应对崛起中的国家角色。它将角色理论和领导特质分析结合起来，认为地位上升和领导特征之间存在令人费解的相互作用。我们预测领导者的特质和风格决定了他们如何扮演角色。印度及其领导人为调查这个问题提供了一个合适的案例。自 1990 年代初经济不稳定以来，印度经历了一个相对成功的全球崛起时代。因此，我们研究了印度的角色与总理阿塔尔·瓦杰帕伊、曼莫汉·辛格和纳伦达·莫迪的领导形象之间的关系，特别是他们对控制事件的能力和权力需求的信念。我们特别发现在瓦杰帕伊和辛格身上，他们的特征可以帮助解释印度的外交政策角色，而在莫迪（仅限第一任期）中，他们是一个容易受到背景风影响的领导人。我们认为，领导人的特质和角色的相互作用，作为物质和社会维度的表达，有助于评估他们如何理解他们的国家在区域和国际体系中的崛起。