India's security partnership with Singapore

In recent years, India and Singapore have developed a strong bilateral security and economic partnership that has assumed a central position in India's strategic engagement in Southeast Asia. Having sought strategic engagement with India for many decades, Singapore has now successfully positioned itself as India's leading political partner and economic gateway to the region. At the same time, India and Singapore have actively pursued close defence ties, including frequent joint training and the assumption of an active maritime security role by India in Southeast Asia. The recent decision by India to allow the Singapore air force and army to operate long term training facilities on Indian territory represents a significant development in Indian strategic practice and may presage a more permanent Indian security presence in East Asia. This article will examine these developments and consider to what extent the emergent security relationship between India and Singapore should be seen as a desire to balance China's growing economic and political dominance of the region and to what extent it reflects a ‘natural’ strategic sphere for India stretching from Aden to Singapore and beyond into East Asia

Operation Lal Dora: India's aborted military intervention in Mauritius

As India expands its strategic reach in the Indian Ocean, it will need friends that it can count on. The island state of Mauritius has long been one of India's closest allies in the region. This article discusses India's plans for a military intervention in Mauritius in 1983 to prevent a feared coup that may have threatened India's interests. A naval task force was readied, but the intervention did not proceed because of disagreements in India's leadership. Instead New Delhi facilitated a political solution to the crisis that firmly consolidated its special role. This previously undisclosed episode sheds light on India's thinking about the Indian Ocean, the alignment of India's interests with the United States, and India's military capabilities

Beyond the 'String of Pearls': is there really a Sino-Indian security dilemma in the Indian Ocean?

The article will ask whether Sino-Indian strategic competition in the Indian Ocean should be properly understood through the lens of a security dilemma. It examines the strategic positions of India and China in the Indian Ocean and concludes that India has an overwhelming strategic advantage that China cannot realistically mitigate in the foreseeable future. This advantage precludes any real security dilemma arising between them. In fact, both China and India have good reasons to keep strategic competition under control while they each broaden their regional influence

The India-Australia security and defence relationship: developments, constraints and prospects

In coming years, India is likely to become one of Australia’s most important partners in the region. This article explores how the security and defence relationship has developed in recent times. It discusses challenges in the relationship before exploring potential areas for enhanced security and defence cooperation. It argues that if Australia wishes to be successful in its objectives of promoting greater cooperation with India, it will need to move in a consistent and sustained manner with a time horizon considerably longer than it is generally used to. In some cases, Australia may also need to move past any immediate expectations of the reciprocity that would be expected in developing security partnerships with most countries.Copyright Information: Email permission 07/04/2015 from Chief Operating Officer, Kokoda Foundatio

Indian strategic thinking about East Asia

Since the end of the Cold War, India's strategic horizons have moved beyond its traditional preoccupations in South Asia. India is developing a strategic role in East Asia in particular. At the same time India's strategic thinking has undergone a revolution, as the country that prided itself on non-alignment has moved closer to the West. But India's culture, history and geography still fundamentally shape its worldview. In engaging with East Asia, India is guided by a mosaic of strategic objectives about extending its sphere of influence, developing a multipolar regional system and balancing against China. The interplay of these objectives will frame India's role in East Asia in coming years

Developments in Australia-India relations: the odd couple of the Indo-Pacific

India and Australia have the potential to become important strategic partners in Asia as part of a coalition that could help manage the changing balance of power in the region. But while India and Australia share many strategic interests, both countries still have a lot to learn about how to get along with each other. Some might even see them as the odd couple of the Indo-Pacific. This paper looks at recent developments in the relationship in the areas of security, politics and economics, and the prospects for a closer partnership under the new Modi government.Copyright Information: Publisher permission to deposit pre-print granted via email on 21/04/201

An Indian sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean?

India has an expansive maritime strategy. Driven by great power aspirations and by strategic rivalry with China, India is expanding its naval capabilities and security relationships throughout the Indian Ocean region. India has paid significant attention to developing relationships at the key points of entry into the Indian Ocean—the Malacca Strait, the Persian Gulf and southern Africa. The purpose of this article is to examine India’s maritime ambitions and relationships in the Indian Ocean and ask whether this may presage an extended Indian sphere of influence in the region.Copyright Information: Email permission 07/04/2015 from Chief Operating Officer, Kokoda Foundatio

Dividing lines: evolving mental maps of the Bay of Bengal

Our mental maps of the world, including our perceptions of where regions begin and end, can have profound consequences on strategic behavior. For decades there has been a sharp division between what we understand to be the regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The line between them effectively cuts the Bay of Bengal in two. These perceptions have inhibited a proper analysis of the strategic dynamics of the area. This article argues that the Bay of Bengal increasingly matters as a strategic space. Like, the South China Sea, security issues in the Bay of Bengal and its littoral states need to be understood and addressed in a coherent manner

The relationship between India and Indonesia: an evolving security partnership

This article examines the evolution of relations between India and Indonesia. It argues that there are grounds to believe that this relationship may develop into a broad-based security partnership over time. Whether this occurs sooner rather than later will depend on the extent to which both countries see an imperative to turn their numerous complementary interests into practical deeds