India Turns East

India Turns East tells the story of India's long and difficult journey to reclaim its status in a rapidly changing Asian environment increasingly shaped by the US-China rivalry and the uncertainties of US commitment to Asia's security. The Look East policy initially aimed at reconnecting India with Asia's economic globalisation. As China became more assertive, Look East rapidly evolved into a comprehensive strategy with political and military dimensions. Frédéric Grare argues that, despite this rapprochement, the congruence of Indian and US objectives regarding China is not absolute. The two countries share similar concerns, but differ in their tactics as well as their thoughts about the role China should play in the emerging regional architecture. Moreover, though bilateral US policies are usually perceived positively in New Delhi, paradoxically, the multilateral dimensions of the US Rebalance to Asia policy sometimes pushes New Delhi closer to Beijing's positions than to Washington's. This important new book explores some of the possible ways out of India's 'Eastern' dilemma.

India Turns East tells the story of India's long and difficult journey to reclaim its status in a rapidly changing Asian environment increasingly shaped by the US-China rivalry and the uncertainties of US commitment to Asia's security. The Look East policy initially aimed at reconnecting India with Asia's economic globalisation. As China became more assertive, Look East rapidly evolved into a comprehensive strategy with political and military dimensions. Frédéric Grare argues that, despite this rapprochement, the congruence of Indian and US objectives regarding China is not absolute. The two countries share similar concerns, but differ in their tactics as well as their thoughts about the role China should play in the emerging regional architecture. Moreover, though bilateral US policies are usually perceived positively in New Delhi, paradoxically, the multilateral dimensions of the US Rebalance to Asia policy sometimes pushes New Delhi closer to Beijing's positions than to Washington's. This important new book explores some of the possible ways out of India's 'Eastern' dilemma.

The report was written by senior scholars of international studies and Indian Ocean studies and focuses on international relations in Indian Ocean region and covers many aspects of “Indo-Pacific”. The report includes both strategic review and major events and related data in this region. This book also includes the origin, the aims, frameworks and regional and global impact of “Indo-Pacific”. The book includes the authors from 5 different institutes in China which provide readers with a full and authentic picture of “Indo-Pacific” most recent development. This year’s Annual Report is the Sixth of this kind and the only one which covers exclusive on the Indian Ocean region in China.

Ravi Dutt Bajpai examines some of the pivotal episodes in the modern history of China and India to argue that their behaviours reflect the self-identity of a civilization-state. The book starts from the progression of China and India into putatively modern polities during the colonial period, as the two indigenous societies imagined their national identities and nationalist aspirations primarily by contrasting their civilizational attributes with the Western colonial occupiers. As newly independent nation-states, both believed that their international status flowed from their civilizational glories. Therefore, despite their material and institutional fragility, China and India decided to pursue complete autonomy to manage their domestic and foreign affairs. Indian Prime Minister Nehru's policy of non-alignment, envisioning an alternate world order beyond the great power competition, was inspired by Indian civilizational ethos. The book also examines the Sino-Indian war of 1962 from a civilization-state perspective and argues that Tibet represented a conflict of civilizational influence. Chapters also explore some of the more recent developments, such as the Indian nuclear test of 1998, China's ambitious Belt and Road (BRI) infrastructure project aimed at reviving the ancient Silk Road, and India's campaign to regain its civilizational status of Vishwa Guru, as the continued manifestations of the two civilization-states endeavouring to regain their past glories in the contemporary world.