The Indo-Pacific as a Maritime Security Complex: India’s Strategic Role and Regional Power Dynamics
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Abstract
This study explores India’s evolving maritime security strategy in the Indo-Pacific by viewing the region as a maritime security complex shaped through layered and overlapping strategic relationships, conceptualized here as a “maritime mandala.” The idea reflects concentric circles of engagement stretching from India’s immediate neighbourhood to the wider Indo-Pacific. The study places India’s maritime strategy within the larger context of shifting regional power dynamics, especially the rise of China and the recalibration of the United States’ strategic posture in Asia.
The paper examines how India’s transition from the Look East Policy to the more assertive Act East Policy widened its strategic outreach across Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the broader Indo-Pacific. It also investigates India’s growing partnerships with ASEAN member states, Japan, Australia, France, and the United States, with particular attention to bilateral, trilateral, and minilateral arrangements such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). These engagements are analysed in relation to maritime security, freedom of navigation, and the protection of Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs).
Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative and analytical approach based primarily on secondary sources, including academic scholarship, maritime doctrines, policy papers, and official government statements. Through this framework, the paper evaluates India’s strategic instruments, including naval modernization, defence diplomacy, maritime domain awareness initiatives, and joint military exercises.
The findings suggest that India’s maritime strategy has substantially strengthened its role within the Indo-Pacific security architecture. Expanded naval capabilities, multilateral exercises, and cooperative capacity-building initiatives have enhanced India’s strategic visibility and reinforced its image as a credible net security provider. At the same time, several structural constraints remain significant. Resource limitations, institutional challenges, and the intensifying strategic rivalry between the United States and China continue to shape and at times limit India’s strategic autonomy.
The study concludes that the concept of a maritime mandala offers a useful analytical lens for understanding India’s layered strategic engagements across the Indo-Pacific. India’s approach, rooted in strategic autonomy, partnership-building, and support for a free, open, and inclusive maritime order, represents a sustainable strategy for balancing China’s growing influence while contributing to regional stability and a rules-based international system.
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