Geopolitics and the Indo-Pacific Region

Exploring the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific region, a major hub of global economic/commercial, military, diplomatic and cultural activities in the 21st century, this textbook provides students with an introduction to the existing debates, frameworks and issues surrounding the Indo-Pacific.

The book explains the historical background to highlight the significance of the region, the shift of power from West to East and the importance of the growing connectivity between Asia-Pacific and the Indo-Pacific areas. Covering relations between China and the USA, India, Vietnam and China?s southern neighbours in Southeast Asia, along with Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, it presents the different arguments regarding the caveats and meaning of ?Indo-Pacific?. In so doing, it shows that the region is the 'theatre' of great power and middle power competition and suggests that third parties have an area of autonomy in their dealing with American and Chinese leaders.

Complete with a list of further readings, Geopolitics and the Indo-Pacific Region fills a gap in the market and will be of great interest to upper-level undergraduates, postgraduate students and researchers studying international relations, ipe, geopolitics, Asian politics and Asian security studies.

1. Introduction 2. The History and Parameters of the Indo-Pacific Region 3. Historical Context: Geopolitics and Balance of Power Thinking and Practices in the Past and Present 4. IPR’s Four Major Entanglements 5. A New World Order: Sino-centric, West-centric or Hybrid National Security Transactional Relations?

Ashok Kapur is a distinguished professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Waterloo, Canada. An active scholar, he has published several major works including India’s Strategic Problems (2015) and Modi’s Foreign Policy (2017).