The Emerging Indo-Pacific Regionalism

The Indo-Pacific region has been widely discussed recently.The US,Japan,Australia,and India have come up with regional strategies that share similarities and diverge at the same time.The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has uncovered its IndoPacific vision too.These strategies highlight the objectives of maintaining peace and stability,promotion of regional connectivity,etc.However,apart from this,the region has not seen any substantial economic or institutional shifts.Economic architecture within the Indo-Pacific is very weak;the influence of international platforms that include states from both the Indian and the Pacific Ocean regions have been undermined.The recent literature focuses primarily on the analysis of strategies and concepts.Scant attention has been paid to the regional security interdependence.This thesis explores the regionalist approaches and empirically applies Regional Security Complex Theory developed by Buzan and Waever(2003).The theory provides valuable analytical tools that help to trace the evolution of security dynamics in the area that makes up the emerging region.The thesis argues that in the absence of institutionalisation and economic regionalization,the Indo-Pacific is best understood as a multipolar security supercomplex that is generated mainly by the Sino-Indian interplay and accommodates a diverse group of actors,including great powers,middle powers and international organisation with independent agency.The interregional security dynamics are significant enough to single out the Indo-Pacific as a supercomplex and distinguish it from previously studied Asian supercomplex,but do not override the interdependence in South Asian and East Asian regional security complexes.To underpin the main contention,China's and India's developmental projects are studied with special emphasis on their security implications.