The Evaluation Of India’s Role In The US Indo-Pacific Strategy : Security Implications For Asia-pacific

This study focuses primarily on the recent evolution of the Indo-Pacific security architecture and analyzes the key position of regional actors who have embraced and constructed the new security framework.The US(United State)strategic transformation from "Asia-Pacific" to "Indo-Pacific" that is a reflection of shift in its policy towards Asia-Pacific region,particularly China.It highlights the "security nexus" between the Indian and Pacific oceans and suggests a two-ocean strategy that considers the Indo-Pacific as a single operational theater or strategic region.Researcher argue that the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy is combination of the Indian and Pacific strategies: through consolidation of strategic partnership with India and reinforcing its strategic alliance with traditional allies,Japan and Australia,and some ASEAN countries.Indo-Pacific strategy,a key shift in US policy,demonstrates that the country has already begun calculating its strategic,political,and military possibilities for sustaining its dominance in the region.The US has been expanding its military presence in the region and supplying Japan,Vietnam,and the Philippines with military assistance in support of their territorial conflicts with China.Both the US and India view China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region as a threat to their strategic interests,a realization that is driving the two countries toward a closer defense and security partnership centered on military cooperation.This research contributes to the debate by examining why key regional actors chose to reconceptualise the region as the "Indo-Pacific" and what the consequences of this process have been.Adopting the Indo-Pacific strategy could provide India with a significant strategic advantage over China.It would support enhancing India’s strategic engagement with the US,the acquisition of sophisticated weaponry and technologies from the US,and the expansion of India’s defense and security partnership with Japan,Australia,and several ASEAN states.India is a significant maritime power in the Indian Ocean.It can help the US counterbalance China’s influence in the Indian Ocean and reducing the burden of maintaining security ties between the Indian and Pacific oceans and implementing a two-ocean strategy in the region.Thus,the US can deploy additional strategic assets in the Western Pacific to challenge China’s expanding influence.The ongoing power shift in the Indo-Pacific and contending states’ efforts to assert their influence would have far-reaching ramifications for the Asia-Pacific security architecture.The study also endeavors to develop an understanding of the evolving regional security structure and attempts to explore India’s role in the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy.In this context,the study also focuses on the rise of China as a potential challenger to US supremacy in the IndoAsia-Pacific region and the US efforts to reshape its alliance network and forge new strategic partnerships with the regional countries,which many experts and scholars see as attempts to contain China’s growing power.This study also focuses on India’s concerns that China’s rising influence in the Indian Ocean region poses a threat to its security interests,and it attempts to increase strategic partnerships with the regional countries to balance China’s rise.The research adopts a qualitative approach,focusing on primary and secondary data that helps in understanding the US Indo-Pacific strategy and thereby provides the ability to comprehend the present scenario analytically.This study employs an analytical-exploratory and analytical-explanatory methodology to trace the shifting dynamics of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region,which is presently becoming the political power center of the world’s major powers.This study begins by tracing and analyzing the primary factors that compel the United States to restructure the broader AsiaPacific security architecture into the Indo-Pacific,reemphasize or reorganize its traditional ally structure,and consolidate its relationship with ASEAN nations.Thus,this study precedes to evaluate and analyze the nature of the US-Indo partnership,and the US and India’ Indo-Pacific strategy to accommodate for their strategic preferences.Next,this research will enter the explanatory and exploratory phases by considering a variety of factors that drive New Delhi to revamp and execute new policies in the recently constructed Indo-Pacific architecture.Thus,this study precedes to illuminates India’s expanding strategic out-reach to major countries for the purpose of enhancing its engagement in the region and playing a leading role in regional politics.Finally,this study concludes with an examination and analysis of the key drivers prompting the US and India to deepen their defense and security relationship,followed by an exploration of the repercussions on the Asia-Pacific security environment.In addition,meticulously employing analytical literature(books and journal articles)and newspaper articles is necessary given the need to understand how recent events have played out.This provides ample fresh information on the current debate on IndoPacific strategy,which remains in transition and is evolving.The research also draws analysis from events and(direct and indirect)policy analysis,as events and policies are useful tools for understanding the dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region.This thesis comprises into six chapters.Chapter first cover the introduction of the topic,and it provide the brief of the study,which is followed by the research questions,and main argument of this study.Furthermore,this chapter provide the brief literature review that is relevant to the subject of this study.It also highlights that existing literature predominately focuses on the Indo-Pacific concept,the nature of emerging Indo-Pacific strategy and state’s different divergent concepts regarding their involvement in this region,and highlights that India’s role in the US Indo-Pacific strategy and its security implications for the Asia-Pacific has still underexplored in the relevant academic literature.The subsequent part discusses and explain about the research methodology and date sources being employed in this research.The final section casts light on the significance and academic contributions,which this research intends to make.The second chapter provide the framework of this research.The key theoretical contribution of this thesis is to move beyond the single-factor theoretical paradigm while examining India’s participation in the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy.This thesis employs "Neo-structure Realism" as an analytical framework that combines two theoretical approaches,offensive realism and its offshore balancing approach,and defensive realism and its balance of power approach,to examine and analyze the diverse nature of the Indo-Pacific strategy.One single theoretical approach alone would be inadequate for a comprehensive analysis of the US and India’s interaction as significant strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific region.Therefore,it is imperative to adopt an appropriate analytical framework that could help to examine and elucidate all the aspects that shape and influence the US’ major security structure transformation from Asia-Pacific to Indo-Pacific framework and India’s adoption of the Indo-Pacific strategy.Given that,analytic neo-structure realism seems to hold true in providing the theoretical underpinnings of this research.The chapter three explores and analyzes the United States’ initiative to shift the security architecture from Asia to the Indo-Pacific region.Explain the evolving nature of the Indo-Pacific strategy during the three administrations of Presidents Obama,Trump,and Biden,as well as its implementation.This chapter focuses on the rapidly evolving policies to reshape the traditional alliance structure and partnerships with other regional countries.This chapter demonstrates how China’s constant rise,combined with its military strength and economic expansion,propels the US to reconstruct its security architecture and increase security and defense cooperation with regional allies such as Japan,Australia,and partners,involving Philippine,Vietnam.This chapter also highlights how India is playing a prominent role in the US Indo-Pacific strategy.The chapter four of the thesis scrutinized the India’s changing policies in the Asia-Indo-Pacific region and conceptualized the Indian and Pacific Ocean as a single strategic sphere where India’s role in the regional affairs to counterbalance China’s expanding influence through the perspective of upgraded its Act East policy and IndoPacific strategy.This Chapter will also explain how India’s approach in achieving its regional objectives is profoundly by consolidating strategic partnership with regional secondary states such as Japan and Australia,which shape the trajectory of its IndoPacific strategy.Furthermore,this chapter shed lights on the India’s increasing engagements with the Southeast Asia nations such as Vietnam,Indonesia,and Singapore.These countries pledge to support the Indo-Pacific strategy.The chapter fifth examines the Indo-US growing strategic convergence and explain how the US ties with India have evolved from the distance democracy to natural allies.This chapter furnished a detailed of the US and India’s approach to the Indo-Pacific region.It also highlights the China’s role in the Indian and Pacific Ocean and illustrates how China’s expanding influence is perceived as threat by the US and Indian leaders.This chapter discuss the Indo-US policies convergence and increasing defense cooperation.Furthermore,this chapter describes Indo-US military cooperation and evaluation analyze how naval cooperation might further their strategic objectives and elucidates the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue politics in the Indo-Pacific region.The chapter six explores what Indo-Pacific strategy has ramifications for AsiaPacific region.This chapter will begin by reviewing the major empirical finding from the US and India engagement in the region,following the application of core of the research question.This chapter will draw together that how adopting and promulgating Indo-Pacific security structure have implications for the regional security environment.The last chapter of thesis concluded with scrutiny over the Indo-Pacific strategy security architecture,concluded the entire thesis,summarize the debate,and present the main argument of this research.