The New World Politics of the Indo-Pacific: Perceptions, Policies and Interests

The book offers a vivid analysis of the new geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific in terms of big power rivalry between the US-China and country-wise perspectives situating largely within the late 2000s and culminates with the developments of the COVID-19 period. The great power shift, marked by the rise of China and the relative decline of the US, poses a serious challenge to the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region and the world order in general. Ironically, the play of realism in the region is stymied by broad partnerships of key countries that utilise the liberal approaches of cooperation with both rivals - the US and China. The book captures the mosaic of stakeholders - rivals the US and China along with Russia; other QUAD members Australia, India, and Japan; key ASEAN members, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam; vulnerable states in East Asia, viz. Taiwan and South Korea; and groupings including the ASEAN and QUAD - that constitute the new world politics of the Indo-Pacific.

The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of Indo-Pacific studies, global politics, and international relations.

Josukutty C A is Professor and Director, School of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, University of Kerala, India. He was fellow of the United States Institute on US Foreign Policy at the University of Florida, 2010 and awarded the Fulbright Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship in 2015. In 2019, he was selected for the ’Academic Excellence Award’ by the University of Kerala. His areas of interest and research include International Relations, India’s foreign policy and electoral politics. He has published five books and many research articles in reputed peer reviewed journals which include Maritime Affairs, Glocalism: Journal of Culture Politicsand Innovation, Indian Journal of Asian Affairs, Gandhi Marg, and International Journal of South Asian Studies.

Joyce Sabina Lobo is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, St. Aloysius College Autonomous, Mangaluru, India. She has formerly worked with Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (formerly called Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, IDSA) New Delhi with the Eurasian Centre. She has completed her M. A (Political Science) from the Centre for Political Studies; and M.Phil and Ph.D (International Relations) from the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi. Currently her research interests are Russian cum Myanmar politics and foreign policy in which she has published, and at her hometown she is working on an UGC project on the Beary Muslims in Dakshina Kannada.