Journal of the Indian Ocean Region最新文献

{"title":"Understanding Bangladesh’s relations with India and China: dilemmas and responses","authors":"D. Hossain, M. Islam","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878582","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The paper asserts that Bangladesh survives and thrives not only the global level power rivalry but also the interests of both China and India, especially in maintaining their presence and influence in South Asia and its adjacent regions. Bangladesh enjoys friendly and robust relations with two competing global powers in its geopolitical vicinity, India, and China. While Bangladesh has excellent bilateral ties with India and China, the bilateral relations of China and India suffer from tensions and mistrust. A growing literature on Sino-Indian relations has already pointed out their relations as ‘rivalry.’ In this context, the paper dwells on the key questions: What implications does the Sino-Indian rivalry bring about for Bangladesh? How is Bangladesh responding to those implications that Sino-Indian rivalry brings? How is Bangladesh shifting its strategic contours of relations with India and China towards a more cooperative framework? The paper argues that these questions are critical for understanding Bangladesh’s pursuit of adjusting to the emerging geopolitical environment marked by growing Sino-Indian rivalry .","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"42 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878582","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49645406","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"China’s engagement with Pakistan: concerns for India","authors":"A. Ranjan","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878585","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Pakistan's closeness to China is mainly to balance a 'perpetual threat' from India that the Pakistani establishment has successfully instituted in the country over the years. To support Pakistan, China has been taking up a large number of projects in Pakistan that also strengthens its own political, economic and military position in South Asia. One such important project is a port at Gwadar in Pakistan's restive province of Balochistan. Although it is mainly projected as a commercial port, various reports in the international media claim that military facilities have been built at Jiwani, near Gwadar. This is, however, refuted by Pakistan and China. This paper discusses the trajectory of China-Pakistan relationships, looks at the nature of the Chinese engagements with Pakistan, examines the significance of Gwadar port for China and Pakistan, and analyses India's concerns and policy measures it has taken to address such concerns.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"96 - 113"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878585","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43078442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Introduction","authors":"A. Ranjan, A. Bloomfield","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878588","url":null,"abstract":"Sino-Indian relations have longbeen ‘complicated’by a series of bilateral disagreements. Rivalry and competition between these two powers are therefore becoming ever-more visible across the entire Indo-Pacific. Ever since Robert Kaplan’s Monsoon (2011), scholars have become increasingly interested in how this dynamic is playing out in the Indian Ocean. Notable contributions from just the past two years alone include Brewster’s India and China at Sea (2018), Linter’s The Costliest Pearl (2019), Basrur, Mukherjee and Paul’s India-ChinaMaritime Competition (2019), and Paul’s The India-China Rivalry in the Globalization Era (2018). Apart from the first ‘contextual’ article, this Special Edition will not, however, focus on SinoIndian rivalry directly. Instead, and in response to what we perceive as the general neglect of such matters in favor of analyzing the activities of great powers in the Indian Ocean, most of the papers in this Special Edition will examine how small andmedium-sized states in the Indian Ocean Region are responding to both the challenges and the opportunities the Sino-Indian rivalry potentially presents to them. The Indian Ocean Region is dominated in many ways by India, which accounts for roughly 75% of South Asia’s population, GDP and defence spending; India also sits astride some of the busiest trade routes in the world, not least because those routes carry goods, and especially energy resources, to China. But the Indian Ocean Region also contains a number of small and middle-powers which are increasingly economically and strategically important. Due to their geography, ties with India are intrinsically important to all of these countries; however, many also increasingly depend on China for investments and capital and, in Pakistan’s case especially, for strategic support too. All are signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding which informs China’s ambitious infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While China typically talks about the BRI only in economic and ‘connectivity’ terms, its rivals allege that the BRI has a strategic dimension too. India in particular has alleged that China is improperly interfering in what New Delhi considers its ‘natural’ sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean especially. Further, some scholars, media critics – and states, including India – warn that the BRI represents a new form of imperialistic, ‘debt-trap’ diplomacy which will underpin a China-dominated New World Order. The case which is routinely raised as an example concerns Hambantota port; the allegation is that Sri Lanka was enticed to borrow too much from China and, when it was unable to repay the debt, Colombo was forced to lease the newly built port (and airport, industrial zone, etc.) to a Chinese state-owned entity for the next 99 years on unfavorable terms. All of these smaller states – with the possible exception of Pakistan – would presumably prefer to maintain good relations with both India and China. But this may","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"1 - 4"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878588","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45510209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Navigating the Sino-Indian power struggle in the Indian Ocean: the case of Sri Lanka","authors":"C. Attanayake, Archana Atmakuri","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878587","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT China and India's competition and power struggle in the Indian Ocean is the new geopolitical reality. The arrival of an extra-regional power and India's concern of a Chinese presence has given Sri Lanka leverage in realizing its domestic and foreign policy goals, and relative bargaining power in convincing New Delhi to realize its interests. Meanwhile China card has posed challenges. Colombo’s strategy vis-à-vis this dynamic is influenced by domestic and international compulsions. By adopting bandwagon, balancing and strategic hedging strategies of small states, this paper evaluates how Sri Lanka navigated the power struggle during 2005–2019. This period marks a major shift in the international attention towards the Indian Ocean and therefore to the island nation. The paper concludes that as power struggle has intensified India and China's engagement in Sri Lanka, it has also allowed Sri Lanka to realize its own goals and objectives.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"114 - 133"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878587","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41887887","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Engagement of China and India in the Western Indian Ocean littoral and island states of East Africa","authors":"Aparajita Biswas","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878581","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A significant development in contemporary times is the emergence of the Indian Ocean as an important economic zone and an area of intensifying rivalry between China and India. In this region, East African Indian Ocean littoral and island states have assumed importance because of their geo-strategic significance. Both India and China have increased their presence in the region and offered windows of opportunities to these states. While China’s intense relationship with the region began with the introduction of its One Belt One Road (OBOR) in 2013, India, on its part, has declared this region as a ‘top priority’ area in its foreign policy agenda. This article explores the driving factors behind the growing footprint of China and India in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) littoral and island states in East Africa. While India and China have competing interests and strategies in this region, this article examines whether their increasing engagements bring development opportunities or pose challenges.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"24 - 41"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878581","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45079224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"India–China rivalry in the Indian Ocean: emergence of a new Indo-Maldives strategic dynamic","authors":"Azim Zahir","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2021.1878584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878584","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT After India's military intervention to thwart a coup in the Maldives in 1988, India had taken for granted its strategic relationship with the Maldives since the early 1990s. However, from around mid-2000s, Sino-Maldives linkages dramatically increased, threatening the Indo-Maldives strategic relationship. Yet, as a result of the growing Sino-Indian rivalry, Indo-Maldives strategic relations have also undergone substantive changes: from India as the de facto port of first call, to articulation of an ‘India First' policy in 2005, which then underwent substantiations, especially given China's Belt and Road Initiative, towards an ‘India dominated' strategic policy since late-2018. Consequently, even though Sino-Indian competition has provided significant economic opportunities to the Maldives, and the stability of the new Indo-Maldives strategic dynamic hinges on domestic factors, overall the Maldives’ foreign policy room for manoevre has been constrained. This case suggests that while external structural factors may not determine all foreign policy choices, they nevertheless significantly constrain the behavior of small states.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"78 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2021.1878584","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46728280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Debating the indo-pacific regional construct","authors":"Dennis Rumley","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2020.1852029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2020.1852029","url":null,"abstract":"This Book Review Essay is stimulated by well-known, well-regarded and widely experienced Australian strategic analyst, Rory Medcalf’s new book, Contest for the Indo-Pacific: Why China Won’t Map the...","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"255 - 261"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-12-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2020.1852029","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45158234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Re-imagining border studies in South Asia","authors":"K. Staudt","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2022.2082636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2022.2082636","url":null,"abstract":"and valley residents. Sourina Bej and Nasima Khatoon analyze one of fi ve border districts in Arunachal Pradesh, focusing Tawang","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"18 1","pages":"80 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47569506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Portuguese decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: history and ethnography","authors":"Henryk Alff","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2020.1852030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2020.1852030","url":null,"abstract":"eco-system dynamics, thus demanding a new riparian equation between India and Pakistan. The book closes on a thoughtful and a wishful note. One wonders whether the Indus Basin can remain ‘uninterruptible,’ perhaps it is already interrupted with India-Pakistan embedded in the post-partition mindsets. It is no exaggeration to claim here that the building blocks of a new political vision would require alternative ways of thinking. A vision based on a holistic-socio-ecological engineering demands that both India and Pakistan adopt a dialogic approach and give a fresh look to Indus Water Treaty that certainly can be termed as a treaty for transboundary water governance. However, for any such effort, new approaches need to be discussed through active participation of civil society on both sides within a sub-basin framework. Perhaps, given his experience, Sinha could have given some thought to suggesting the challenges such a template would entail. This could have elevated the value of this well-written book in both India, Pakistan, and beyond.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"263 - 265"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-12-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2020.1852030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47279312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Between the Elephant and the Dragon: examining the Sino-Indian competition in the Indian Ocean","authors":"D. Gill","doi":"10.1080/19480881.2020.1824393","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19480881.2020.1824393","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Indian Ocean has established itself at the spotlight of global geopolitics as regional and extra-regional states have set their gaze upon the region for power projection. China and India are locked in a strategic competition for dominance in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). India is the only state in the geographic space with the potential to challenge China. To achieve its interests, China has crafted a containment strategy against India in the region. China’s intentions go beyond acting as a mere counterweight to India, but its strategy is not without consequence. India has also been crafting its own containment strategy against China to limit the latter’s increasing assertive maneuvers in the Indian Ocean. This paper argues that Sino-Indian competition goes beyond balancing one another in the IOR. India and China both aim to dominate the region at the expense of each other’s influence through the concept and strategy of containment.","PeriodicalId":53974,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Indian Ocean Region","volume":"17 1","pages":"235 - 254"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2020-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/19480881.2020.1824393","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43214520","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}