Jindal Journal of International Affairs

World Order and Shifting Regional Security Landscapes

Ruben Elamiryan — 2023-08-23

International Relations in the 21^st Century have witnessed a transformation in the Global Order. This has impacted the priorities of the United States in different parts of the world, including the South Caucasus. The paper discusses the US interests in the South Caucasus in the framework of the US ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy and the revised strategy towards Europe and Middle East. It analyses the US National Security Strategy (2017), President Biden’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (2021), and other strategic documents, interviews and public speeches, US economic cooperation with the region, as well as quotes expert interviews. The author concludes that the South Caucasus is losing its strategic attractiveness for the US. It is connected with the US policy of strategic refocusing towards the Asia Pacific, decreasing interest towards Caspian energy sources and the withdrawal of US military presence in Afghanistan. However, despite the above, apart from supporting democratic transitions in the region, the US is interested in the region in order to contain Russia, China, and Iran.

Failure to Protect

Ahan Gadkari — 2023-08-23

Implementation mechanisms within International Law and their failure to act upon situations they were created for are much debated topics in the academic community. There are multiple examples of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law failing, across the world, in its objective of (a) creating an international obligation to prevent its violations and (b) implementing its principles via compliance mechanisms that do not exist. What is extremely worrying about this is that, although certain western nations support creating these norms, they do not have the political will to uphold them. Even though International Law has multiple implementation mechanisms, they have failed to enforce the de jure principles they have established. Nations across the world are well-aware of the lack of realistic implementation mechanisms within the International Law system but have kept this as a subject of only debates in the United Nations Human Rights Council and international conferences held under the ambit of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The failure of International Law in protecting Human Rights is due to the latent nuances of its colonial nature, which are stitched into the fabric of Public International Law. Countries that have created these norms, have created them with the aim that these norms should fail to apply to them. The paper argues that Public International Law has an intrinsic colonial nature, created for the twin purpose of loot and then acting as a justification for the same. The paper further argues that International Human and Humanitarian Rights regimes form a smokescreen for International Economic Law and allows it to operate in its shadows without much notice. To reinforce this argument, the paper uses Marxist theory of ideology critique, which states that law works as a disguise for the real processes at work, within the International legal system. The real forces at work remain unknown, while contemporary debate focuses on Public International Law and its failings (Danilenko 1999). It is essential to understand the fundamental issue this structure boils down to, i.e., the Great Powers can direct any action they desire with no fear of consequences, while other countries have no recourse due to the difference in economic and military might. This intrinsic colonial nature of International Law exists in an apparatus that tries to maintain the status quo with the Great Powers at the top.

Australia: The Missing Piece in India’s Energy Security Puzzle

Nikita Vats — 2023-08-23

Over the last few decades, India's demand for natural gas has risen. Although the country's domestic production has increased, it can only meet a portion of the country's overall increasing demand. Approximately half of the country's gas supply comes from domestic production, with the remainder coming from imports from other countries. India's import ratio is rising to bridge the demand-supply gap. The country's reliance on foreign sources exposes its energy security to regional and global events. Thus, to ensure an uninterrupted supply of LNG, India needs to continuously analyse the geopolitical dynamics of the source countries, as well as come up with diversification strategies to meet its needs. This paper attempts to evaluate how India can benefit by increasing the LNG trade with Australia and how New Delhi can strengthen its stakes in the Indo-Pacific region.

In the Era of Uncertainties - Middle Power Politics in a Multipolar World

Poornima Vijaya — 2023-08-23

The Asia-Pacific region has transformed from a colonial past to an emerging economic power hub, thus bringing fluidity to its definition. The Asia Pacific region is a powerhouse of economic, technological, demographic, and social growth, drawing the attention of several scholars to the distinctive hotbed of great power competition and the emergence of a multipolar world order. The article studies the rise of middle powers by understanding the nature of their foreign policy behaviour by re-examining the regional security complexes of the Asia-Pacific region. In trying to bridge the imbalance of power and regionality, the author argues that the geopolitical flux in the security environment has severe implications for regional integration and cooperation. Countries in the Asia-Pacific region intend to constructively engage in widening their multi track diplomacy through multi-layered alignments with numerous formal and informal agencies and thus create multiple centres of power, influence, and order. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ASEAN-plus continue to present themselves as indispensable in order to promote converged strategic hedging, scilicet, pursuing bilateral, minilateral, and multilateral efforts on the chessboard of geostrategic competition of- Low Politics, including supply chains, trade production, cooperation on public health, and infrastructure development; and High Politics, implying defence partnerships and military modernisation agreements. Nonetheless, strategic hedging is not a preferred option for competing powers as it provides these middle power agencies (in bilateral, minilateral, and multilateral) with space, a platform, and channels for pragmatic, cooperative, yet cautious partnerships. However, the region has a myriad of options for tackling the complex nature of ASEAN consensus and self-help governance, thus overlooking its functions of regional security diplomacy and aptitudes of prioritising and advancing the member states internationally.

Regionalism Vs Multilateralism

Palak Maheshwari — 2023-08-23

Trade globalisation refers to the growing economic interdependence of countries globally. Regional trade refers to the conscious creation of policies to ensure smooth and preferential trade within a region. These ideas can seem opposite to each other but this study aims to prove that this is not so. There are several ways in which regionalism actually promotes globalisation. There is safety for local businesses in regional trade. Regional Free Trade Areas (FTAs) allow small countries to compete with each other before competing globally; which gives them more time to adapt and adjust. Regionalism also enables participation of less-developed countries in making heavyweight regional economic blocs and ensures a passage to deal with bigger economies (like in the case of ASEAN and China). It is often thought that regionalism developed as a response to globalisation when the fact is that regionalism precedes globalisation. These are all pieces of evidence provided in this study to conclusively say that regionalism builds upon globalisation instead of challenging it.

Book Review: Drifts and Dynamics: Russia’s Ukraine War and Northeast Asia

Yukti Panwar — 2023-08-23

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, scholars across the world have focused on the consequences that this war has had on Ukraine, the global economy, and Europe in particular. The focus has also moved towards how the West has responded to the developments in Ukraine. In India too, there has also been an ongoing debate about the developments in Ukraine and how the government here should respond to it.

However, the mainstream narrative often misses the developments that are happening in Northeast Asia, this book aims at shedding light on this. The book has been written as a collective effort of Professor Sriparna Pathak, Professor Manoj Panigrahi, Divyanshu Jindal, Palak Maheshwari, Ashu Mann, Ashutosh Kumar, Nishant Sharma and Sukanya Bali, highlights how Northeast Asia is responding to the development of Russia invading Ukraine and how the response of each of the actors in the region is unique.

Book Review: How China sees India and the World

Arun Teja Polcumpally — 2023-08-23

China is a state that has not been completely colonised by any western country. Its political culture is continuously influenced by its history of imperialism, which has carried the concept of a central authoritarian political structure undisturbed for centuries. Even in the modern era, unlike India, China openly acknowledges the existing social-political hierarchies.

‘The Zhou rewrote the history of their violent overthrow of the Shang and began the tradition of dynastic history-writing. This occurred with every dynastic change. There was always the fear of the power of the past to discredit the future. This has continued to be the case into modern times in China.’ (34)

While such attempts to rewrite history take place in every country, including, as we are currently witnessing, in India itself, the Chinese effort is much more deliberative and even dramatic.(39)

All these claims are vetted by Shyam Saran in his book, ‘How China sees India and the World.’