The grand spectacle of the 21st century is set to play out in Asia. The Indo-Pacific region, representing the heart of Asia’s ascendant military and economic power, will take center stage in the coming decades. After the Second World War, relative international stability led analysts to divide Asia into disconnected fragments. Throughout the Cold War and into the early 21st century, Asia-watchers viewed these sub-regions as disparate and estranged, their relations to one another within Asia having little bearing. The Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia came to be seen as distinct entities with their own destinies.
The bumptious, yet undeniably sensational rise of China cracked the old patterns of thought which divided Asia into discrete sectors. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of the early advocates of the idea that ‘South’ and ‘East’ Asia were part of the same elaborate drama. In 2007, in an address to the Indian parliament, Abe invoked Dara Shikoh’s phrase from 1655, the “confluence of the two seas” to outline his vision. The popularization of the moniker ‘Indo-Pacific’ was the offspring of Abe’s speech. After all, the breathtaking scope of Imperial Japan’s violent forays into Burma and Southeast Asia, and the stiff resistance put up by the British Indian Army in the Second World War, served only to reinforce the reality that the shared stage had witnessed many similar dramas before.
In the scholarly world, C. Raja Mohan was one of the first to highlight the profound interconnections between the Indian and Pacific oceans decades ago, even while such a perspective was unfashionable in many quarters of India and Asia. Yet states could not wish away reality. Raja Mohan instinctively articulated the unspoken truth. Therefore, for any keen student of the Indo-Pacific, it is essential to turn to Raja Mohan as India reconfigures its role in the region.
One of the central themes of India and the Rebalancing of Asia is the story of British India’s domination over the Indian Ocean. The author emphasizes the imperial role of the British Indian Army in maintaining India as the center of gravity in the region. British India’s vast continental expanse and the peninsular projection in southern waters gave it the geographical heft to shape the continental and maritime destinies of Asia. Many scholars and pundits often overlook the history of British India while pontificating on geopolitics in Asia.
The argument about British India is also well understood in many quarters of the scholar-practitioner establishment in Washington. Wess Mitchell has argued that British India’s grand strategy conforms to the reality of geography and the permanent interests of anyone looking at the Asian game board from India’s perspective. The centrality of India to the Indian Ocean also convinced former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to lay the early foundation of the U.S.-India relationship in 2005. At the time, the Bush administration was eager to support India’s rise, aiming to secure a new balance of power in Asia. All succeeding administrations have broadly followed the same template established under President Bush.
What about the current fracas in the US-India relationship, one might ask? Raja Mohan remains cautiously sanguine about the broader trajectory of positive US-India ties, punctuated by occasional instability caused by the overflow of American domestic politics into grand strategy. As long as Washington maintains its role as an offshore balancer to prevent Asia from being dominated by any one power, the relationship will flourish. It is also in Delhi’s interest to work for a multipolar order in Asia and to share security burdens in its region.
Apart from the issues highlighted above, India and the Rebalancing of Asia also succinctly details India’s complicated competition with China across multiple domains and geographies. The author also delves into India’s rapidly expanding partnerships with Japan, Australia, and Europe. The uncertain long-term question of India’s relationship to Russia is also fleshed out in some detail.
One critical aspect that stands out is the interconnectedness of the challenges confronting Asia and Europe.
Perceptive British thinkers, such as Brendan Simms and John Nilsson-Wright, have also contended that the European and Asian strategic theaters are interlinked. Meanwhile, Tokyo is assiduously courting European powers to play a greater role in Asia. As Raja Mohan writes, “If Imperial Japan had driven the Europeans out of East and Southeast Asia in the 1940s, Tokyo was now inviting them back to cope with the expansive Chinese challenge in the twenty-first century.” Even as Europe focuses its attention on Ukraine, the prospect of assisting Asian partners in building their security capabilities remains alive.
Finally, this book serves as a timely reminder of the enduring value of broad, historically informed analysis that takes a long view of the geopolitical issues facing Asia today without getting bogged down in minutiae. The author outlines various predicaments facing India’s role in Asia: China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and South Asia, a lackadaisical attitude towards regional economic and technological integration, hyper-nationalism, and the sense of having already arrived as a superpower combined with the reality that India still has numerous developmental goals to be accomplished.
Following in the footsteps of the illustrious Indian strategist K. Subrahmanyam, India and the Rebalancing of Asia once again proves why Raja Mohan remains ahead of the curve in interpreting and influencing India’s international destiny. His indefatigable penmanship continues the fine tradition of writing realistically about Indian geopolitics and statecraft.
