CLAWS Journal Vol. 15 No. 1 (2022): Summer 2022 has selected the theme—“India’s Strategic Neighbourhood.” The phrase “strategic neighbourhood” can be defined in various ways. Apart from Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, nations sharing land and maritime borders with India include China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. This goes beyond the geographical description of South Asia. Several countries outside of this list are also linked to India through close economic and diasporic ties, as well as developments perceived by Indian policymakers as having strategic implications; this category includes countries along the Indian Ocean, the East African coast, the Gulf region, Afghanistan, the Central Asian region, and countries in Southeast Asia.

This important report was issued by the Department of Defense in June 2019. The Indo-Pacific is the Department of Defense's priority theater. The United States is a Pacific nation; we are linked to our Indo-Pacific neighbors through unbreakable bonds of shared history, culture, commerce, and values. We have an enduring commitment to uphold a free and open Indo-Pacific in which all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty and able to pursue economic growth consistent with accepted international rules, norms, and principles of fair competition. The continuity of our shared strategic vision is uninterrupted despite an increasingly complex security environment. Inter-state strategic competition, defined by geopolitical rivalry between free and repressive world order visions, is the primary concern for U.S. national security. In particular, the People's Republic of China, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, seeks to reorder the region to its advantage by leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce other nations. In contrast, the Department of Defense supports choices that promote long-term peace and prosperity for all in the Indo-Pacific. We will not accept policies or actions that threaten or undermine the rules-based international order - an order that benefits all nations. We are committed to defending and enhancing these shared values.China's economic, political, and military rise is one of the defining elements of the 21st century. Today, the Indo-Pacific increasingly is confronted with a more confident and assertive China that is willing to accept friction in the pursuit of a more expansive set of political, economic, and security interests. Perhaps no country has benefited more from the free and open regional and international system than China, which has witnessed the rise of hundreds of millions from poverty to growing prosperity and security. Yet while the Chinese people aspire to free markets, justice, and the rule of law, the People's Republic of China (PRC), under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), undermines the international system from within by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously eroding the values and principles of the rules-based order.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community. 1. Introduction * 1.1. America's Historic Ties to the Indo-Pacific * 1.2. Vision and Principles for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific * 2. Indo-Pacific Strategic Landscape: Trends and Challenges * 2.1. The People's Republic of China as a Revisionist Power * 2.2. Russia as a Revitalized Malign Actor * 2.3. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a Rogue State * 2.4. Prevalence of Transnational Challenges * 3. U.S. National Interests and Defense Strategy * 3.1. U.S. National Interests * 3.2. U.S. National Defense Strategy * 4. Sustaining U.S. Influence to Achieve Regional Objectives * 4.1. Line of Effort 1: Preparedness * 4.2. Line of Effort 2: Partnerships * 4.3. Line of Effort 3: Promoting a Networked Region * Conclusion

This book delves into the examination of bilateral relations between India and Vietnam in the 21st century and how the Indo-Pacific as a geo-political construct lends itself to the improvement of their engagement. With the rise and increasing assertiveness of China, the slow growth of the United States, the resurgence of Japan, and the oscillating role of ASEAN as a multilateral organization, the Indo-Pacific has emerged as a theatre of international geostrategic competition. This book studies these changing geopolitical realities and new evolving strategic configurations, while addressing political, economic, defence, and strategic aspects of the relationship along with the role of China and the US in facilitating ties. India’s Act East Policy that was upgraded from the Look East Policy – one of the main drivers for India’s increasing presence in the Asia-Pacific region – is also examined in this volume. An important intervention in the study of international relations, this book will be indispensable to students and researchers of maritime studies, security studies, politics and international relations, geopolitics, and Asian studies.

This book brings together a unique team of academics and practitioners to analyse interests, institutions, and issues affecting and affected by the transition from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific has emerged as the world’s economic and strategic centre of gravity, in which established and rising powers compete with each other. As a strategic space, the Indo-Pacific reflects the rise of geo-political and geo-economic designs and dynamics which have come to shape the region in the early twenty-first century. These new dynamics contrast with the (neo-)liberal ideas and the seemingly increasing globalisation for which the once dominant ‘Asia-Pacific’ regional label stood.

During the last twenty years, burgeoning transnational trade, investment and production linkages have emerged in the area between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The appearance of this area of interdependence and interaction and its potential impact on global order has captured the attention of political leaders, and the concept of the Indo-Pacific region is increasingly appearing in international political discourse. This book explores the emergence of the Indo-Pacific concept in different national settings. Chapters engage with critical theories of international relations, regionalism, geopolitics and geoeconomics in reflecting on the domestic and international drivers and foreign policy debates around the Indo-Pacific concept in Australia, India, the United States, Indonesia and Japan. They evaluate the reasons why the concept of the Indo-Pacific has captured the imaginations of policy makers and policy analysts in these countries and assess the implications of competing interpretations of the Indo-Pacific for conflict and cooperation in the region. A significant contribution to the analysis of the emerging geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of Asian Studies, International Relations, Regionalism, Foreign Policy Analysis and Geopolitics.

Zusammenfassung: This book investigates India-ASEAN partnership and their overlapping perspective on the Indo-Pacific region and big powers' contestation and competition in this region providing specific nuances and newer insights. It is policy-oriented and examines the confluence of ASEAN's Outlook for Indo-Pacific (AOIP) and India's Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI). It brings out various contemporary geopolitical drivers that highlight the hidden complementarities and gaps in India-ASEAN multi-sectoral connectivity and its future. The book provides a balanced assessment of evolving trends, undergirded by theoretical debates and empirical analyses with diverse sub-regional and country perspectives of the intersection between the potential for regional convergence, domestic capacity issues, and security interests. It is thus of immense use for thinktanks and media commentators, policy makers, and researchers of Indo-Pacific & Asian affairs, international relations, and China-US relations, interested in evolving contours of Indo-Pacific geopolitics. Swaran Singh is a professor in Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi). He is president of Association of Asia Scholars, director India for Washington-based The Millennium Project's South Asia Foresight Network, Fellow of Canadian Global Affairs Institute (Calgary), Member of Governing Body of Society of Indian Ocean Studies (New Delhi) and formerly visiting professor in department of political science, University of British Columbia (Vancouver), Australian National University (Canberra), Science Po (Bordeaux), University of the Philippines (Manila) and several other universities across China and other parts of Asia. He has supervised 40 PhDs and 50 MPhil degrees and sits on various selection committee and editorial/advisory boards of prestigious journals. He is a well published author and regularly for CGTN and other radio and television discussion. Reena Marwah is a professor in Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University. She is the recipient of several national and international fellowships including the McNamara Fellowship of the World Bank, Asia fellowship of the Asian Scholarship Foundation and the ICSSR Senior Fellowship. She has been a Consultant for the World Bank and UN Women. She is the founding editor of Millennial Asia, a quarterly Scopus journal on Asian Studies of the Association of Asia Scholars. She has published over twenty books and several research papers and articles in national and international journals

This book analyses the competing power politics that exists between the three major Asian powers - China, India and Japan - on infrastructural development across the Indo-Pacific. It examines the competing policies and perspectives of these Asian powers on infrastructure developmental initiatives and explores the commonalities and contradictions between them that shape their ideas and interests. In brief, the volume looks into the strategic contention that exists between China`s "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI; earlier officially known as "One Belt, One Road" - OBOR) and Japan`s "Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure" (PQI) and initiatives like the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) that position India`s geostrategic and geo-economic interests in between these two competing powers and their mammoth infrastructural initiatives.