India in the Indo-Pacific: Understanding India's Security Orientation towards Southeast and East Asia

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. The book uses the conceptual framework of Role Theory to map the changes in India’s security role. It also examines the reasons for the discrepancy between political declarations and actions. Following a brief historical overview, the author provides a detailed chronological and conceptual examination of India’s security role from 2000 to the end of 2019. Against this detailed background, exogenous and endogenous factors that have contributed to this development and thus to the current gap between policy and action on the ground are identified.