India's strategic engagements in Southest Asia: an analysis of selected India-ASEAN post-Cold War relations from 1991-2020

Abstract

India’s rise in the post-Cold War era was precipitated by a domestic economic crisis that mooted radical reforms in the early 1990s. As its economy strengthened, so too did India’s role as a balancing power. India nevertheless, envisions itself a leading power capable of shaping global norms through strategic partnerships while remaining non-aligned. In this regard, partnership with ASEAN where India has geographical and cultural proximity is relevant. Accordingly, India’s Look East and Act East policies warranted comprehensive ties with ASEAN. Then, India accorded ASEAN a central role in its Indo-Pacific leadership vision. Yet, despite giving importance to ASEAN for nearly three decades, India has yet to realise the full potential of its partnership with ASEAN. Therefore, this research addresses the primary question of why India has not better utilised ASEAN as a strategic leverage and heightened its global standing? This study aims to examine the dynamics that shaped India’s engagements with ASEAN and their relevance to India’s aspired leadership. Accordingly, India’s political security, economic and connectivity ties at the bilateral and sub-regional planes as well as with ASEAN en bloc are explored. This qualitative study uses primary data from official statistics and documents; and from interviews of key informants from India and Malaysia with experience in the government, academia and business sectors. Neoclassical realism provides the theoretical basis for this investigation of systemic changes and their corresponding domestic persuasions. The findings reveal that the extent to which India could leverage on ASEAN was shaped firstly by India’s structural and economic reforms that were dictated by India’s prevailing institutional and social dynamics; secondly by the varying political and economic interests of the heterogenous ASEAN member states that took precedence over cultural ties with India and; thirdly by India’s non-alignment stance and strategic autonomy that supported ASEAN centrality as well as defined India’s involvement with extra-regional powers. These limited India’s integration with ASEAN and regional footprints thereby reducing opportunities to shape international norms according to India’s aspired leadership. This thesis contributes to the discourse on regionalisation by exploring the increasing nexus of economic and security imperatives within the India-ASEAN cooperation.