Book Review- India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, The Present

Posted on : October 26, 2021
Author : Palak Bothra

---

Menon, S. (2021). India and Asian geopolitics: The past, present. Penguin Random House, 416pp., 699.00

Geopolitics is defined as the expedient use of geography and regional location as a source of power. A state’s relative influence in the international community can be enhanced by exploiting its geographic position to its advantage through alliances, military capability modifications, and strategies. This is critical in times of negotiations and can give a country the upper hand in such matters, making it vital for India, for example, in its quest to become a regional power. 

 

India’s position in South Asia places it in a fascinating spot between Pakistan and China, two nuclear-armed powers that have issues with India and a strategic alliance with one another. The book ‘India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, The Present’ by former Foreign Secretary (2006-2009), National Security Advisor (2010-2014), Diplomat and Scholar- Shivshankar Menon, traces the story of India and its journey since independence in an ever-evolving Asia.

 

In this factual, extensive, and deeply engaging volume, Menon presents a compelling geopolitical argument for an India that is increasingly and constructively involved in Asia and the world in pursuit of an open, secular, free, and prosperous world order. The book is subdivided into two parts: The past, which is a more recent history of independent India and Asian geopolitics, and how India has hitherto reacted to it. It successfully outlines the long perspective of India in the subcontinent, the Raj, and the challenges of independence until the end of the Cold War. The second part deals with India’s contemporary strategic problems- the rise of China, the relative decline of the US, and the impact of globalization. It is in this part that Menon’s political wisdom as a foreign policy practitioner is truly reflected. The book can, therefore, be read both as a historical overview of Indian Foreign Policy thus far, and as a practitioner’s handbook to the present reality and possible future outcomes. 

 

The first few pages of the book take a close look at the geography and topography of the Indian subcontinent, which makes it a crucial juncture within Asia. It then proceeds to systematically examine the subcontinent’s connectivity within the area and interactions with the remainder of the world. Subsequently, Menon points out the fact that India’s foreign policy has been rather flexible, responding to changing geopolitics in the subcontinent. He also discusses how India’s behaviour and economy evolved in the world as a result of demographics, resourcefulness, and historical heritage. Menon also seeks to expand the idea that there is an Asia which is West of India- that India has to look and act east but also look west. These are also areas of strategic, economic and geopolitical influence. 

 

Menon then proceeds to discuss how different policymakers and leaders have attempted to manage, influence, and utilize the external environment over time in order to achieve the goal of social and economic change in India. He validates the strength of the leaders by citing remarks made by prominent leaders like Nehru, K.M. Panikkar, and Indira Gandhi. In the aftermath of India’s independence and China’s revolution in 1949, for example, Menon points out that Nehru regarded Asia as a “potential political, economic, and strategic area.” But while both China and India at the time were pursuing Asian solidarity, they chose two completely different paths. India chose and helped start the non-alignment movement; while China chose to ally with the erstwhile Soviet Union before changing its stance to partner with the US. Thus, it can be said that with the threat of nuclear war looming and a commitment to a just world order, Nehru’s foreign policy in the 1950s was largely focused on establishing an area of peace.

 

Subsequently, Menon tries to distinguish Nehru’s strategies from his daughter Indira’s. He points out that Indira Gandhi had to deal with domestic issues in the 1960s and a difficult geopolitical situation in the 1970s, as a result of which, attempts to consolidate India’s hold in the subcontinent became inevitable. In Menon’s telling, however, under both Nehru and Gandhi, “India’s centrality in southern Asia and the geography did not change.” What both the leaders sought was a common goal to pursue Indian interests even while functioning under fundamental geopolitical limitations. This is where the concept of Strategic Autonomy comes in (as discussed later).

 

In a separate chapter, Menon also effectively details the domestic politics in India in the mid-1960s, outlining events such as the signing of the Tashkent Declaration, ASEAN, the United States’ role in the Vietnam War, etc. He also discusses the geopolitical situations of other neighbouring countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and India’s engagement with these countries at the time. 

 

The book’s second part extensively covers the disintegration of the old-world order after the financial crisis of 2008, China’s rise to power, and the emergence of power politics in Asia. Beginning with globalization, its dual nature, and its impact on Asian geopolitics, this part seeks to examine the contemporary global geopolitical situation. Menon explains how we are living in an “age of anxiety,” in which globalization has facilitated advances in the economy and living standards while also causing inequality and suffering, as well as benefiting radical organizations, making the world less safe. 

 

Technology has collapsed space and rendered borders obsolete. Specific issues like climate change and terrorism have globalized and the world has now become a common battlespace. Simultaneously, new authoritarian governments have risen to power. Menon talks about how this has led to an increase in nationalist and hyper-nationalist sentiments, that have made politics much more emotional and strident. This becomes a problem because global issues require global solutions and consequently, more cooperation with the rest of the world. However, this cooperation is less and less forthcoming because the reliance on hyper-nationalism has made it difficult for authoritarian leaders to negotiate and make compromises for diplomacy. Resultantly, new flashpoints and hotspots are active again and disputes have become much harder to resolve. 

 

This has also partly pushed the rise of China and its power projection not only on land but also in the maritime domain. The world is now dealing with a fundamentally changed China- one that is much more assertive and aggressive. In this context, Menon talks about Chinese projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) through which China is trying to develop military and political leverage in its periphery. He also credits China’s growing economic order for its quick recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Menon then analyses the Indo-Pacific security situation and outlines three possible geopolitical scenarios in the future in Asia: “a regional order centred on either the United States or China; an open, inclusive, multipolar concert of powers; region of several powers each contending for primacy and influence to maximize its individual interests.” However, according to Menon, neither China nor the rest of Asia is prepared for an order centred on China. China would confront three challenges in attempting to convert its growing influence into an order: other Asian nations’ desire to expand rather than restrict their options, an order’s requirement for legitimacy, and China’s own domestic priorities. Further, China does not have the predominance of power and a clean slate in the international arena that the United States did after WWII. 

 

In Menon’s telling, a multipolar Asia-Pacific order would be best suited to solve contemporary challenges like maritime security, cyber security, and military doctrines. A multipolar model would allow countries to agree on confidence-building measures and crisis management, as well as collaborate in the fight against terrorism. However, it is improbable that any single power or group of powers would create a security order for Asia as a whole. This is because the challenges of one region differ from the other. For example, the challenges in West Asia are distinct from those in Asia-Pacific. It’s also unlikely that the US and China will work together to create such an order for Asia’s subregions. 

 

The book’s powerful argument for “strategic autonomy” is also premised on assumptions about the viability of hegemonic, bipolar, or multipolar international systems, the benefits and costs of alliances, and, lastly, India’s position in the power structure between China and the United States. In India’s drive for strategic autonomy, it is implicit that it prefers a multipolar world and believes that multipolarity is preferable to bipolarity and hegemony in the global system. Multipolarity gives greater influence and flexibility for any state aiming to be a great power in a highly contentious space of international politics. It also demands India’s aversion to formal alliances with any of the great powers in the system, preferring instead to rely on “shifting balances and alliances of convenience.” Lastly, India’s response to the subsequent US-China struggle in the Indo-Pacific is to strive for a regional balance of power that can help preserve a multipolar Asian order, rather than to categorically back US primacy or to fight China alone.

 

However, it will be difficult for India to manage or rise to multipolarity in the current geopolitical situation. For the first time in history, India confronts a rising potential hegemon in its immediate neighbourhood. Since there was no underlying conflict of interest with the great powers in both the Cold War bipolarity and the post-Cold War hegemonic system of US supremacy, India could handle and even profit from both situations. However, with China, in contrast, India endures both political and psychological uncertainty. Multipolarity aids a state’s drive for power, but it does not give a “survival strategy” in the face of severe disparities in material capabilities. As a result, the growing gap in material capabilities of the two powers ensures that India’s ambition for multipolarity will be swallowed by its determination to challenge China’s dominance in the area. 

 

According to Menon, therefore, the third scenario appears to be the most plausible: that Asia becomes somewhat like late-nineteenth-century Europe, where numerous great countries of varying size and power compete for influence and control. Menon believes that regardless of which of these scenarios plays out, the current situation implies that the region’s objective must be steering the change- putting in place the habits and institutions necessary to guarantee that shifts in the balance of power occur peacefully.

 

Not without reason, therefore, India’s relationship with the US has not only transformed but has acquired many of the characteristics of an alliance short of a commitment to mutual defence. Menon puts this forward as a contemporary example of strategic autonomy. He defines the term as follows- “Strategic autonomy actively practiced simply means that on the larger issues that matter to India—national security, world trade, climate change, and so on—India will work with and engage with all those that it can work with, rather than taking sides between powers in disputes based on a prior alliance or alignment that constrains India’s pursuit of its own interests. So long as the decision to work together as partners is India’s, even in ways that allies do, strategic autonomy is maintained.” In his opinion, this is hardly a time for India to abandon the pursuit of this strategy as it meets the fundamental needs of maintaining India’s sovereignty. “What India needs… is peace and a supportive external environment for India’s transformation. India is therefore not a disruptive revisionist power, except where it is ready to reorder the international system in its own favour in specific areas.”

 

Menon then explores possibilities such as the US viewing India as a possible counterbalance to China through QUAD, China’s involvement in South Asia as a balancer, and India’s engagement with West Asia in the fight against radical extremism. Menon suspects that the US-China relationship will have a huge impact on Chinese behaviour as China projects soft and hard power, as well as ‘wolf warrior diplomacy.’ In such a circumstance, Menon agrees that India should also extend its position as a maritime security provider.

 

Menon puts special emphasis on the power of the Maritime spaces of the subcontinent- starting with Bangladesh, Bengal, all the way through the Malabar Coast, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. He points out that the Indian Ocean’s geography is very different from the relatively closed seas like the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Red Sea, South China Sea, etc. These are all enclosed bodies of water and have historically been battlespaces, whereas the Indian Ocean is a rather open ocean- it has so many chokepoints that even the Royal Navy never managed to control all 10 of the chokepoints simultaneously. This is why it is perceived as such an important source of migration, trade, economic exchanges, and exchange of ideas, thus making it extremely crucial for India to prosper.   

 

In Menon’s words, “Throughout history, India has been most successful and prosperous when it was most connected to the rest of the world,” and it is these spaces that are most connected with the world that have done best. He points out that almost half our GDP in 2020 was from the external sector; 38% of our foreign trade today goes through South China Sea; we depend on sea lanes for energy, exports for raw materials, etc. Thus, our prosperity lies in the freedom of navigation in these waters. Here, it becomes important to note that for the first time in the history of China today China finds itself secure on its land frontiers. At the same time, however, the main contradiction in global politics today is the fact that the US is pushing back against the rise of China, and the area where they are contending most is the maritime space. Therefore, it is safe to say that if the maritime space is important for India, it is even more so for China. Thus, figuring out the answers to this quandary is perhaps India’s primary foreign policy challenge. 

 

In the last chapter ‘India’s Tasks’ and the brief afterword, Menon manages to comprehensively tie all the loose ends. He tries to sketch out India’s future in an Asia where numerous governments, large and small, some far more active than India, are passionately defending their interests. With territorial claims, increasing influence, and greater competition in maritime space, Asia is now increasingly important to world security and prosperity in the current geopolitical environment. In Menon’s opinion, this Asia has always been linked to broader geographies, and is now even more linked than ever. As India expands economically and acquires a greater status across the world, both its domestic issues and diplomatic decisions become more significant. India itself has started becoming more impacted by what occurs in the world around it.

 

Menon is perhaps at his most perceptive when he looks inwards at India. He perceives it as astray in terms of vision due to a breach of the underlying principle that success in establishing a secure and prosperous India must come after, not before, global status, power, reputation, and recognition. In his words, “This is not a time for drama, showy events, and the pursuit of status… Influence, like power, is a means to an end.”

 

Chapter 1 of the book took extracts from Nehru’s Independence Day Speech, ‘A Tryst with Destiny’ where he talks about the huge challenge to ensure that India becomes a great democracy, a tolerant society where people are secular and can live in freedom and prosperity. Menon ends the book on a similar footing where he reaffirms this thought. In his opinion, it is of utmost importance to India to ensure that modern India is just that- it is modern, secular, tolerant, and provides a decent standard of living for all its people. He believes that working with our immediate neighbourhood and subsequently with the major powers is secondary only to the establishment of a robust democracy and a free society in India.  

 

In sum, it can be said that this book is an excellent reference for students of IR and a valuable resource for research scholars. It is a well-organized volume that has been meticulously tailored to reflect the growing dynamics and character of the power structures in Asia. Given Menon’s experience as a diplomat, a high commissioner (to various important Asian countries), and the foreign secretary of India, his book is probably one of the most comprehensive accounts addressing contemporary Asian geopolitics in recent times. 

 

Palak Bothra

(Palak Bothra has recently completed her graduation in political science from Loreto College.)