Publication Year: 2020
India–Thailand Security Cooperation: Strengthening the Indo-Pacific Resolve
DOI: 10.1177/2347797020906651
Abstract: In the past, India’s resolve to connect with countries further to its east centred on its relationship with ASEAN as a group and lacked a holistic outlook as it emphasised on a lopsided approach that left out the security dimension. The bilateral relationship between Bangkok and New Delhi marks an emerging departure from this past trend. In the recent past, Thailand has emerged as a bright spot in India’s vast array of security relationships, with growing focus on maritime security, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, joint patrols and exchange of personnel in training. Besides boosting interoperability, increasing joint actions seek to marry India’s Act East policy with Thailand’s Look West policy, both of which emerged in the past decade of the twentieth century. Both countries look to strengthening their resolve in the Indo-Pacific, even as the region’s stability gets further complicated by sharpening Great Power politics. This article scrutinises the India–Thailand relationship from a security perspective and tests the compatibility of this emerging bilateral relationship with a regional security architecture conceptualisation in the Indo-Pacific. As such, this article seeks to fulfil two important goals: fill the literature deficit in India–Thailand relations that has often been eclipsed and subsequently neglected by the overarching canvass of India–ASEAN relations and analyse India–Thailand bilateral relations from the perspective of an emerging security partnership in the complex labyrinth of relationships in the Indo-Pacific.
Publication Year: 2020
Korea’s ‘New Southern Policy’ Towards India: An Analysis
DOI: 10.1177/0973598420906248
Abstract: The Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea (hereafter Korea) initiated the ‘New Southern Policy’ in 2017 to foster closer relations with ASEAN and India and bring them at par with the four major powers—the United States of America (USA), China, Russia and Japan, which have traditionally played a dominant role in Korea’s foreign affairs. Korea’s strategy through this new policy has been to diversify its foreign relations and lessen dependence on these four major powers of the Northeast Asian region. In this policy shift India is projected as one of the key partners for Korea. However, there has not been much progress in Korea’s relations with India in the last 2 years. The New Southern Policy is also not compatible with US-led ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ in which India is an integral component. This article argues that Seoul’s New Southern Policy toward New Delhi shall remain limited and would largely focus on developing economic relations rather than building security cooperation between the two countries.
Publication Year: 2020
India’s Act East Policy and ASEAN: Building a Regional Order Through Partnership in the Indo-Pacific
DOI: 10.1177/0020881719885526
Abstract: Over the past few decades, India’s security concerns have undergone a substantial change. With the formulation of the Look East Policy (LEP) in the 1990s, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a regional entity became an essential component and a corridor for India’s outreach to Southeast Asia. In 2014, the LEP became more encompassing with a shift to the Act East Policy (AEP). The global security and economic environment too are witnessing significant changes with the USA taking a back seat, China’s aggressive positioning and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) coupled with the emerging geopolitical construct of ‘Indo-Pacific’. The regional stakeholders, such as ASEAN, the USA, Japan, Australia and India are yet to form a unified stand on the Indo-Pacific concept as well as the regional security architecture. The AEP appropriately fits into the current scenario as India is set to take up a larger role in the regional security environment while keeping the centrality of ASEAN intact. New Delhi seeks to create a platform for mutual development in the Indo-Pacific and engage with like-minded nations in the quest for a rules-based order that promotes transparency, respect for sovereignty and international law, stability and free and fair-trade framework. India and ASEAN can be apt partners in the Indo-Pacific to play a constructive role and build a regional order.
Publication Year: 2022
India in the Indo-Pacific: Understanding India’s Security Orientation Towards Southeast and East Asia (PDF)
Abstract: In view of the fast-changing world order, emerging countries are increasingly influencing the dynamics of regional securities. This timely and in-depth book examines India’s reorienting strategic posture and describes how New Delhi’s security policy in the Indo-Pacific region has evolved and expanded over the past two decades. The author argues that India’s quest to leverage its geostrategic location to emerge as an Indo-Pacific actor faces multiple challenges, which create a clear divide between the country’s political rhetoric and action on the ground. The author critically examines these contradictions to better situate India’s security role in an increasingly fluid Indo-Pacific region.
Publication Year: 2022
New Great Game in the Indo-Pacific: Rediscovering India’s Pragmatism and Paradoxes
Abstract: This book looks at the emerging power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region and locates India and its interests within the overarching geostrategic framework. With US and China emerging as leading players within the region, the book analyses the challenges to India’s foreign policy in the face of new alliances, counter-alliances, and great power equations that have formed after the Cold War. It discusses important issues such as China’s strategic forays in the Indian Ocean, the balance of power between countries, India’s Act East opportunities, Russia’s re-engagement in the region, the South China Sea dispute, India’s maritime strategy, and the conundrum of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue facing India.
A comprehensive study of the changing geopolitical and geostrategic environment of the Indo-Pacific region, the book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of international relations, global politics, foreign policy, maritime studies, Chinese studies, South Asian studies, geopolitics, and strategic studies.
Publication Year: 2022
Enhancing Democratic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Region
Abstract: This study builds on a report CSIS published in 2020 on ways the United States can partner with allies and partners to enhance democratic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region. This follow-on effort includes case studies on the democracy support efforts of Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan; comparisons of democracy support strategies; data on official development assistance (ODA) funding related to democracy broadly defined; and recommendations for ways the United States can coordinate democracy support initiatives in the region with like-minded partners as well as regional networks and institutions.
Publication Year: 2021
Eastward Ho? India’s Relations with the Indo-Pacific
Abstract: Eastward Ho? analyses India’s relationships with the countries lying to its east. It explores India’s ‘Look East Policy’ launched in the early 1990s, later renamed ‘Act East’ in 2014. Against the backdrop of deepening intra-Asian economic integration, combined with security tensions and rivalries, both related to the economic and strategic rise of China, this volume asks: What are India’s relationships like with countries to its east, and what are its challenges, possible roles and options?
Parts I and II study the political and economic consequences of the growing Asian integration; the evolving Asian ‘security architecture’, today’s buzzword for institutions and processes; China’s ever-changing perceptions of India; and India’s emerging relations with Japan and Korea.
Part III studies India’s economic and strategic relations with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and focuses on India and China’s tussle for influence over the Himalayan states of Nepal and Bhutan. Part IV concludes the discussion by analysing India’s evolving relations with Southeast Asia, namely Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Publication Year: 2021
India and Australia in Indo Pacific: Dynamics of Defence, Diplomacy and Diaspora
Abstract: As the India-Australia relationship upgrades from 3Cs of Cricket, Curry and Commonwealth to 3Ds of Defence, Diplomacy and Diaspora, the evolving dynamics of the relationship have a huge potential for both the countries. The opportunities provided by the 3Ds are immense and are having incremental, clear and conclusive repercussions for the relationship. Based on Defence, Diplomacy and Diaspora and supported by specifics, India and Australia in Indo-Pacific provides an insight into the interplay between the three Ds and attempts to lend a prognostication for the bilateral relationship.
Publication Year: 2021
Envisioning India’s Role in the Indo-Pacific
Abstract: Ever since the launch of India’s Look East policy in 1992, India has come a long way in terms of the changes directed towards its extended neighbourhood and also subscribed to the new concept of the Indo-Pacific. In recent years, the Indo-Pacific region has gained a great deal of international attention. This research study looks at the recent changes and strategies initiated by the Indian government towards the Indo-Pacific region, along with the various economic, multilateral and bilateral relations that could impact India’s policies in the future. It also looks into the various regional forums India is associated with and how India shapes its policies according to their actions. This volume may be useful to all the stake holders having interest in the region.
Publication Year: 2021
Maritime Issues and Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific
Abstract: This edited volume examines the political and security issues influencing and shaping the developing maritime order in the Indo Pacific. If focuses specifically on the impact of China’s maritime expansion upon the policies and strategies of the regional states as well as the major players. The chapters examine the interaction of these players, paying particular attention to Japan, as the originator of the Indo Pacific idea and promoter of security cooperation and regionalism. It also covers the responses of the ASEAN claimants, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines as well as Indonesia, alongside the key players, India, the US and also the EU.
Publication Year: 2021
The Strategic Relations Between India, the United States and Japan in the Indo-Pacific: When Three is Not a Crowd
Abstract: This book analyses the growing relationships among India, the United States and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region, which can broadly be defined as the space encompassing both the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, though different nations have their competing visions of its extent. While on the one hand we have an ascendant China in all respects, at the same time, the US has continued interests in maintaining its leadership role in the region and beyond. Washington appears to employ a hub-and-spoke model where its most important ally in the region, Japan, fits in perfectly as a point from which to connect to the rest of the region. However, the critical role will be that of India, which is not an American ally but is key to many American plans in the region. Will India cooperate?
By examining the rapidly-evolving relations among the three countries, this book explores India’s position in this region. Crucially, this book will analyse how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will upset power relations in the region. It is suitable reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of international relations, politics, security studies, political science, and geopolitics.
Publication Year: 2018
The Expansion of and Changes to the National Coast Guards in East Asia
Abstract: East Asian countries have vigorously engaged in a buildup of the capabilities of their coast guards. This has been driven in part by the need to protect their maritime jurisdiction in the face of numerous maritime disputes. The coast guards in East Asia serve as the front-line defender of sovereignty and maritime claims.
Publication Year: 2019
India’s Persian desire – analysing India’s maritime trade strategy vis-à-vis the Port of Chabahar
Abstract: Since the turn of the century, India has seen itself as the dominant maritime power in South Asia and has aspired to project this power across the Indian Ocean Region. The principle of a “net security provider” has, thus far, been most applicable in South Asia and around its littorals, but it is West Asia that will really test India’s diplomatic and maritime capabilities over the course of the coming years. West Asia has a complex structure of diplomatic and strategic intricacies, that India has to manoeuvre through, in order to achieve its interests. Adding to this, India has had to adopt a careful balancing act juggling its West Asian interests with those that it has elsewhere. The roles of trade, strategy, and ideology have never been as intertwined as they are in the contemporary age, and this region and the challenges it poses is the most complex weave India that is likely to face as it pushes forward into a new age of international relations. This paper addresses the bilateral realities of India and Iran in the context of India’s maritime strategy, and the geostrategies of other regional players such as China and Pakistan. Full text available here.
Abstract: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are a vital source for India’s energy requirements and home to a large population of Indian workers. Although for quite some time now, India’s strategic influence in the Gulf region has been overshadowed by Pakistan, recent developments seem to present India with an opportunity to expand its influence led by maritime security cooperation. However, the growth of Chinese economic and political influence in the region presents some tough challenges. This paper examines India’s extant security ties with the GCC countries and their relations with China, with an aim to make a relative assessment of India’s strategic influence and discusses the prospects for India’s position in the region. Full text available here.
Abstract: This article examines the major shipbuilding programmes of the PLA Navy (PLAN) with the purpose of assessing the capabilities of the shipyards engaged in their construction. It analyses the reasons underpinning the Chinese Navy’s ability to convert capital into assets in an efficient, time-bound, and cost-effective manner. It also examines the PLAN’s organisation, structure, scale and best practices, with the aim of identifying those tenets that could be adopted by Indian shipyards to boost efficiency. The piece concludes by making recommendations on these issues. Full text available here.
