China in India’s Post-Cold War Engagement with Southeast Asia

T he commemoration of 2022 as the ‘ASEAN-India Year of Friendship’ marks thirty years of the partnership between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Beginning in 1992 with India’s ‘Look East Policy’ (LEP), renamed ‘Act East Policy’ (AEP) in 2014, India has progressed from being a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992 to a Dialogue Partner in 1996 and a Summitlevel Partner in 2002. The transition in India’s approach not just underscores the continuing importance of Southeast Asia in New Delhi’s strategic calculus, but also highlights the reinvigoration of Indian foreign policy under the changed geopolitical dynamics of the Indo-Pacific in the Asia-Pacific security architecture. Besides, India has maintained the centrality of the ASEAN not just under the LEP/AEP but also in its Indo-Pacific vision. Here, the key query that demands attention is: what explains India’s approach to the region over three decades? Chietigj Bajpaee’s China in India’s Post-Cold War Engagement with Southeast Asia departs from the conventional understanding in explaining India’s engagement with Southeast Asia in the backdrop of economic liberalization and the maturing regional architecture in Asia as well as the growing importance of transnational security threats. In doing so, the book bases itself in answering three queries in finding a rationale to India’s attitude and behaviour towards Southeast Asia. First, why has India made such a concerted effort towards Southeast Asia as opposed to other strategically significant regions, including the Middle East (West Asia), Central Asia or its immediate neighbourhood of South Asia? Second, why has India’s engagement with the region accelerated over time as the relative importance of Southeast Asia to regional and global growth was on a decline? And third, why has India continued to cling to the principle of ‘ASEAN centrality’ in its regional engagement (p. 2)? Accordingly, the book is systematically presented and is structured with eight chapters that include an introduction and a conclusion, and encompasses the historical context, methodological tools, understanding of LEP from its launch to its evolution under two phases (1992-2004 and 2004-2014) and finally the ‘Act East’ phase from 2014 onwards. In finding the explanations, Bajpaee draws his reasoning by postulating the ‘China factor’, interpreted as ‘China’s regional role’, and offers a more credible Strategic Analysis, 2022 Vol. 46, No. 6, 641–643, https://doi.org/10.1080/09700161.2022.2149985