Review: Asia Geopolitics Futures and India’s Strategic Role
New book forecasts scenarios that lie ahead in shifting Indo-Pacific geopolitical and geoeconomic futures and India’s evolving strategic role within them.
A new book forecasts scenarios that lie ahead in shifting Indo-Pacific geopolitical and geoeconomic futures and India’s strategic role within them.
WonkCount: 1,467 words (~6 minutes)
Review: Asia Geopolitics Futures and India’s Strategic Role
Context
“This will require…strong cooperation with every nation that stands to suffer, from India to Japan and beyond,” the recently-released U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) noted with respect to the South China Sea, warning about the risk of a “potentially hostile power to impose a toll system over one of the world’s most vital lanes of commerce – or worse – to close and reopen it at will.”1 While such specifics have not been getting as much focus relative to larger uncertainties around U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, they nonetheless spotlight evolving conversations on flashpoint areas heading into 2026, with implications for Southeast Asia amid developments like the Philippines 2026 ASEAN chairmanship.
Select Key Recent Geopolitical and Geoeconomic Developments in the Indo-Pacific Region
A new book India and the Rebalancing of Asia by scholar C. Raja Mohan forecasts scenarios that lie ahead in shifting Indo-Pacific geopolitical and geoeconomic futures and India’s strategic role within them2. In doing so, it adds to a series of new books on aspects of Asia’s evolving outlook, including ones we have reviewed recently on ASEAN Wonk that look beyond traditional scenarios around the “Asian Century” and various iterations of a “Taiwan Scenario in a “new Cold War.” The book’s broad sweep of Asia’s strategic developments covers a wide range of developments, from policy debates surrounding past iterations of the “Quad” to the uncertainties in companies seeking manage “derisking” in supply chains3. “[T]he invention of the Indo-Pacific geography is about putting India back into the heart of Asian geopolitics…yet, as India’s relative position in Asia improves, the broader political and economic context in Asia is undergoing rapid change,” the book notes as it elaborates on some of the changes to expect in regional futures4.
Analysis
The book also highlights key datapoints to watch in Asia’s evolution and prospects along with potential regional futures (see originally-generated ASEAN Wonk table below for a summary of important contours. Paying subscribers can also read the rest of the “Analysis” section and “Implications” section looking at how these dynamics play out in the future).
Future Datapoints to Watch, Along With Select Scenario Outlines and Key Strategic Pillars
