Obama’s Security Policies Towards India

With the development of international situation, the Obama administration has launched a series of strategy adjustments since its coming into power, of which "Return to Asia-Pacific" is the primary diplomatic adjustment. As China becomes more powerful and more confident for Asia-Pacific affairs, the United States takes China as its long term challenge and treats it as the main object for re-balancing. With the implementation of "Pivot to the east" and the competition in Indian Ocean, the strategic values of these waters become more important. And with its increase of national strength, vigilance for China, as well as the natural desire for a great world power, India has also been showing growing concern for international affairs. In the context of strategy adjustments, the Obama administration has a new look on India, thus formulates corresponding security policies towards India. This paper will define the Obama administration’s security policies towards India from the view of traditional security.This paper argues that the changing of global power balance and the highlight of global security issues constitute the background of strategic adjustments. Considering the desire for balancing China and the goals for dominating the Indian Ocean, in traditional security fields the Obama administration will attach more importance on India’s values in the west Pacific and Indian Ocean. From the perspective of re-balancing in Asia-Pacific, U.S. mainly focus on India’s values in containing China. Taking India’s wary of China, its desire for economy development and international influence into account, this paper believes that the United States will shape India into a counterweight to China, strengthen the U.S.-India military ties, and put India into the multilateral mechanisms for dealing with security issues. The paper deems that the United States has the same strategic interests in the Indian Ocean with India. To achieve the strategic demands, the United States will support India to play a role in these waters, strengthen military ties, and exert India’s influence in regional affairs. Based on India’s reaction to U.S. policies, and taking the differences in both countries’history, diplomatic tradition, and strategic positioning into consideration, American security policies towards India will continue to experience fluxion. In view of the influence on China, the paper lists China’s imaginable tactics, of which cooperation is the main choice.