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ICWA-AAS
IV Annual Asian Relations Conference
New Delhi, India
‘Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific Region: Asian Perspectives’
21-22 March 2013
Concept Paper
I
The Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) was set up in 1943 by a group of freedom fighters and eminent personalities of India. Under Jawaharlal Nehru’s inspiration and leadership of Sarojini Naidu, ICWA held the epoch-making Asian Relations Conference in March 1947 (before India’s independence), which was addressed by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Cambridge History records Nehru stressing that India was “the natural centre and focal point of many forces at work in Asia”.
The Association of Asian Scholars (AAS) was formed in November 2005, when the South Asian alumni of Asia Fellows organised themselves as AAS with the aim of Asianising Asian Studies. In 2009, this South Asia based AAS expanded to become an Asia-wide network of 286 Asia Fellows across Asia with the motto ‘Globalising Asia’. The AAS conducts projects, conferences and lecture series and publishes a biannual journal titled ‘Millennial Asia’.
II
The Indo-Pacific region is the new spatial formulation that is resonating among the strategic community and appears to blend the established cartographic delimitations of the Indian Ocean with the geographical understanding of the Asia Pacific region. Although the Indo-Pacific has not entered the official lexicon such as white papers and strategy and doctrine documents of the Asian and the Pacific countries, its usage has become prevalent in official speeches, comments and interviews.
There are a number of reasons to use the Indo-Pacific region as a geopolitical, geoeconmic and geostrategic space for analysis:
First, there is a growing acknowledgment of the importance of the seas in the Asian economic resurgence. This is reflected in the burgeoning demand for living and non-living resources, growing maritime trade, boundary disputes and rising tensions.
Second, there are a number of competing political priorities, conflicting economic interests and changing security perspectives of regional as well as extra-regional powers that have acted as a catalyst for the formulation of the idea of ‘Indo-Pacific’ region.
Third, the growing economic and military power of China has unsettled the regional countries prompting them to encourage other powers to engage in the region.
Fourth, an attempt is being made to move away from the narrow cartographic imaginations of the Indian and the Pacific Oceans and bridge the two through the concept of ‘confluence of the seas’ in which Asia is the centre of gravity of global political, economic and security dynamics.
Fifth, it is premised that a larger Indo-Pacific regionalism involving IOR-ARC, APEC and Pacific Islands Forum and other such organisations would evolve and promote free trade and economic cooperation.
India is an important stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific region and as a responsible actor would like to contribute to the process of integration of the Indian Ocean and the Asia Pacific region. In this context, the conference will facilitate a debate on the concept of Indo-Pacific region, its usages and ramifications in policy formulations among a number of Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean countries, and its relevance for regional stability and security. The conference is divided into five sessions:
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Conference Outline
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| Session 1 |
Indo-Pacific Region as a Spatial Concept |
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Geographical or spatial categorisations are rarely devoid of political or economic or security underpinnings. In such a case, the emergence of Indo-Pacific region as a spatial concept in the foreign/security policy discourse, especially in the wake of changing politico-economic and strategic dynamics in the Asia-Pacific region, raises a number of questions. What are the contours of the Indo-Pacific region as a spatial concept? To what extent the conceptualisation captures the essence of the changing reality in the region? How far the Indo-Pacific region as a concept would affect inter-regionalism?
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| Session 2 |
Indo-Pacific Region: Perspectives from Indian Ocean |
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The Indo-Pacific regional conceptualisation has brought the Western Indian Ocean region and Eastern Indian Ocean region into the framework of changing geo-politics. Many of the states from east and south of Africa to Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia and as far as Australia are important stakeholders and the capability to influence politico-economic-strategic dynamics. Significantly, their strategic locations confer them prominence, and thus entrust on them the responsibility to uphold order. In this context, how do Indian Ocean states perceive the Indo-Pacific conceptualisation as it subsumes/substitutes its regional identity? To what extent the concept of Indo-Pacific region would enable regional integration or disunity? What are the factors that led to the evolution of the concept and how would the Indo-Pacific evolve as a regional category?
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| Session 3 |
Indo-Pacific Region: Perspectives from Southeast and East Asia |
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Southeast and East Asia has been one of the main theatres of world politics for more than a century. Southeast Asian and East Asian countries, either individually or collectively have played a prominent role in influencing the geopolitics of the region. The emergence of Asia as the fulcrum of 21st century world politics necessitates a greater understanding of their perception of the Indo-Pacific. What are the possible responses and options that ASEAN would bring about? How does China perceive the Indo-Pacific region concept and what would be its possible reactions to this new formulation? As Japan is faced with new economic and security challenges, to what extent it would engage with the Indo-Pacific conceptualisation? How far South Korea would ingratiate itself with the Indo-Pacific region?
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| Session 4 |
Indo-Pacific Region: Perspectives from the US, Russia, and EU |
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The region has been under the influence of and attracted the attention of the major powers for its strategic and economic significance. The changing geo-political scenario also compels other stake holders such as the US, Russia, China and also EU to respond accordingly as China looms large over their strategic calculations. In this context, it is important to understand how major powers react to Indo-Pacific categorisation and its implications. What are the factors that influence the US to work towards bringing about a consensus on Indo-Pacific? To what extent Russia’s attempt to re-engage in the region would impact on the idea of Indo-Pacific? Why EU considers itself as a stakeholder in the region?
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| Session 5 |
India and the Indo-Pacific Region |
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India is an emerging power and an important stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific region. Therefore, it is well served to analyse India’s role in the region in the new regional categorisation of the Indo-Pacific. How does India perceive the evolution of this new conceptualisation? To what extent the adoption of the Indo-Pacific category would serve India’s interests? What are the pitfalls in adopting the new regional concept? How far the Indo-Pacific conceptualisation would determine the dynamics among India, China, US, Japan and other states in the region? To what extent India would share the responsibilities in maintaining peace and stability in the region?
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| Session 6 |
Prospects for Economic Integration |
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The notion of regional organisations typically is accompanied with ideas of economic co-operation and integration. The creation of trade blocs, inclusion and exclusion of states to enforce certain regional order is in practice. In such a scenario, what are the possibilities for the emergence of new trading bloc/economic organisations in the Indo-Pacific region? What kind of economic institution the Indo-Pacific conceptualisation would engender in the face of existing organisations? To what extent the emerging, if at all, economic structure would bring about economic integration of the Indo-Pacific region? How far such an organisation would serve the interests of the countries in the region?
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