Study On The Layout Of India's "Territorial Space" And Its Power Structure

At present,the world is in a period of the great transformation era,the world's political geography and international strategic situation are undergoing profound changes and complex adjustments.The center of international political power is gradually shifting from the west to the east.The rise of the two major emerging economies,China and India has attracted worldwide attention.However,there are differences between China and India in terms of geopolitical structures,such as global leadership,regional leadership,and national strategies,which hindered the healthy development of bilateral relations and the common rise of the two countries.Against this background,it is objectively necessary to strengthen the research of India's territorial political outlook and big power strategy to break through the “security dilemma” between China and India.Based on the geo-setting and using literature analysis,the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods,interdisciplinary research method,this research investigates the historical evolution of India's territorial political outlook,explored the characteristics of its formation,the “territorial space” distribution of India in South Asia and the Indian Ocean rim from the perspective of territory and territorial politics by using relevant theories comprehensively,such as human geography,political geography,geopolitics,geo-economics,and international relations,etc.This research also attempted to measure the characteristics of India's power structure.This research hope to have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of India's sphere of political outlook and great power strategy,so as to provide an effective reference for promoting the peaceful and friendly development of the two countries and to build a “community of destiny” between China and India,as well as China's policy on India.The thesis is including six parts: From the research background,the first part expounds the research significance,research methods and research ideas,and summarizes relevant research progress at home and abroad;The second part defines the concept and connotation of territory and territorial politics firstly,then put forward the analysis framework of the “territorial space” layout,and finally analyze the formation and historical evolution of India's territorial political outlook;The third part is the layout of India's “territorial space” in South Asia,it is mainly analyzed from the construction of Northern security system,the competition of Western security space,the expansion of Southern orbit and the reconstruction of Eastern geopolitical space.The fourth part is mainly includes the layout of India's “territorial space” in the Indian Ocean Rim,which mainly analyzes India's extension strategy;Based on the theoretical analysis,and combines the power measurement model,the fifth part explore the power distribution characteristics of India's “territorial space”;The sixth part is the conclusion and discussion and it mainly summarizes the research results and deficiencies of this thesis,and puts forward the prospect of future research.Results show that: Firstly,India's concept of territorial politics presents the characteristics of “center-periphery”,which takes South Asia at its core and expanding to the outer circle.The Indian Ocean rim is the primary choice for India to expand “territorial space” outside South Asia;Secondly,India realizes its “territorial space” layout in South Asia by constructing the security system in the north,competing for security space in the west,expanding the sphere of influence in the south,and reconstructing geopolitical space in the east;Thirdly,India construct it's “territorial space” layout around the Indian Ocean by virtue of its eastward entry strategy,western union strategy,southward entry strategy and northward extension strategy;Fourthly,India's power potential in South Asia and the West Coast of the Indian Ocean is higher than in the East Coast of the Indian Ocean.India's power high-energy area in the Indian Ocean Rim is distributed in a dot pattern.The middle-energy areas of power evolved in clusters,while the low-power areas showed a continuous trend;Fifthly,India's “territorial space” layout shows a strong sense of realism.India regards China as geopolitical rival in mind,and also courts the United States and Japan,Russia and other big countries to counterbalance China in some regions,such as from South Asia to a wide range of Southeast Asia,the Middle East,Africa,and Central Asia.When development a new global strategy toward India,China should fully understand India's “great power dream” and its security aspirations and try to weaken the so-called “security dilemma” caused by “the Belt and Road” initiative and China's cooperation in the South Asian sub-region;China should strengthen communication and dialogue with India to promote political development through economic cooperation,deepen high-level consultation and military confidence-building mechanism,and expand non-governmental exchanges between China and India.The two countries carry forward the spirit of the Wuhan and Chennai meetings,work hand in hand for build a community of shared future for mankind,and strive to realize the prospect of “dragon and elephant dance”.