The Architecture of Influence: Indo-U.S. Strategic Alignment, Youth Mobilization, and the Struggle for Nepalese Sovereignty

Abstract

The paper discusses the effect of Indo-U.S. strategic positionality on the sovereignty of Nepal in the post-Gen Z era. By stepping up relations with India as a counterweight to China, the US puts Nepal at risk of being drawn into supranational alliance politics. The significance of this study lies in how youth activism, and especially the ‘I am generation (Z)’ campaign, resists political positioning and outside forces. The project is organized as a qualitative study, analyzing the connection between state diplomacy and social mobilization through media analysis, archival research, and a survey and review of institutional resistance. Indo-U. S. Alignment is undermining economic and security sovereignty, neoliberalism, and unratified military agreements; the Gen Z movement is a much-needed respite from informational opacity.Nepal must engage with new diplomatic partners and utilize youth-led civic engagement to maintain its historical non-alignment and national political sovereignty.