India and Inner Asia


Book Description

This book studies India’s historical, socio-cultural, and trade linkages with Inner Asia. Inner Asia includes the landlocked regions within East Asia and North Asia that are part of today's Western China, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, and Siberia. The volume examines issues of geopolitics, geoeconomics, climate change, regional cooperation, and discusses the importance of the fabled Silk Road for the countries of Inner Asia. It also analyses the impact India has wielded upon the region through its cultural traits and how Buddhism has remained a binding force between the people of the two regions. Lucid and topical, this book will be of useful for scholars and researchers of Asian studies, central Asian studies, area studies, geopolitics, international trade, international relations, defence and strategic studies, diplomacy and foreign policy, and political studies. It will also be of interest to policymakers, bureaucrats, diplomats and think tanks.




The Eurasian Connection


Book Description

The Modern Silk Route is critical to the development and integration of Central Asian countries. The book argues that to overcome current supply chain inefficiencies the traditional focus on physical corridors needs to be complemented by a consistent and ambitious set of national reforms in trade and transport facilitation.




Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600-1750


Book Description

In this remarkable 1994 work of comparative economic history, Stephen Dale studies the activities and economic significance of the Indian mercantile communities which traded in Iran, Central Asia and Russia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author uses Russian sources, hitherto largely ignored, to show that these merchants represented part of the hegemonic trade diaspora of the Indian world economy, thus challenging the conventional interpretation of world economic history that European merchants overwhelmed their Asian counterparts in the early modern era. The book not only demonstrates the vitality of Indian mercantile capitalism, but also offers a unique insight into the social characteristics of an Indian expatriate trading community in the Volga-Caspian port of Astrakhan.




India’s Energy Diplomacy in Eurasia


Book Description

This book provides an accurate evaluation of re-integration of Eurasia in the context of India’s energy security and diplomacy which requires a normative shift as in the current Eurasian geopolitical and geo-economic matrix, the growing role of transit countries and their proximity with the Energy Complex Zone negates the fact that great powers or strong states control the Eurasian Heartland. Authors believe that wrecking this norm is fundamental here to deconstruct the undercurrents of energy geopolitics prevailing in Eurasia over the emerging phenomenon, as it discourages the re-integration of the Eurasian region. It explores how the geopolitical struggle between major powers for energy resources has been engendering mutual interdependencies between energy producers and transit countries. It makes an attempt to provide a transcontinental study of Eurasian energy and connectivity as a thrust area for the present work positioning Eurasia in Indian foreign policy, determining the contours of energy diplomacy in connection with the Eurasian energy policy. It defines Eurasia broadly as the region that encompasses Central Asia and the Caucasus including Russia and transit countries. It addresses the geopolitical and geo-economic aspects of Eurasian re-integration in the context of India’s energy security. The objective of this book is to combine theoretical, contemporary, and policy-oriented issues that deserve scholarly attention and would both complement and supplement the academic contributions.




The “Roads” and “Belts” of Eurasia


Book Description

This book addresses the challenges and opportunities of contemporary and future development of Eurasia. The main theme of the first part of the book is examining the reaction evoked in different countries by the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative.” The second part analyses other national and international integration and infrastructure projects in Eurasia. This unique publication brings together in one volume works by leading researchers from different countries, all united by their common interest in the political and economic processes unfolding in the Eurasian continent. By offering various points of view from experts from all over the world, this book provides a multi-dimensional analysis of the Eurasian future and will be of value to a wide range of readers, including scholars, publicists, the international business community and decision-makers.




India’s Economic Corridor Initiatives


Book Description

India’s Economic Corridor Initiatives highlights key aspects of current discourses on India’s initiative of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and Chabahar, and their geo-economic significance. INSTC was founded by India, Russia, and Iran, and the Chabahar port in Iran provides a major prospective conduit for India's interchange and commerce with West Central Asia while maintaining a strategic distance from Pakistan's entry route. This book analyses the drastic changes in the equation of international relations in general, and more particularly between India and Eurasian countries. Contributors from Iran, Central Asia, Russia, Armenia and Europe provide a wide spectrum of opinion and analysis on the subject. The chapters claim that these corridors provide an alternative to the BRI and can play a pivotal role in de-escalating tensions through negotiations. A new addition to the debate on contemporary dynamics in Eurasia and India, this book will be of interest to researchers studying economic corridors, transnational and trans-regional economic relationships, security studies, regional and area studies, international relations and Indo-Iran-Russia relations.




China, India and Alternative Asian Modernities


Book Description

The conception of modernity as a radical rupture from the past runs parallel to the conception of Europe as the primary locus of global history. The essays in this volume contest the temporal and spatial divisions—between past and present, modernity and tradition, and Europe’s progress and Asia’s stasis—which the conventional narrative of modernity creates. Drawing on early modern Chinese and Indian history and culture instead, the authors of the book explore the provenance of modernity beyond the west to see it in a transcultural and pluralistic light. The central argument of this volume is that modernity does not have a singular core or essence—a causal centre. Its key features need to be disaggregated and new configurations and combinations imagined. By studying the Bhakti movement, Confucian democracy, and the maritime and agrarian economies of China and India, this book enlarges the terms of debate and revisits devalued terms and concepts like tradition, religion, authority, and rural as resources for modernity. This book will be of great interest to researchers and academicians working in the areas of history, Sociology, Cultural Studies, literature, geopolitics, South Asian and East Asian Studies.




Facets of India’s Security


Book Description

This volume brings together established and emerging scholars from academia and think tanks to reflect on important, conceptual, strategic and developmental issues in India’s national security. It provides a comprehensive understanding of national security through a more open approach, covering both traditional and non-traditional concerns that have a bearing on the survival and well-being of humanity. It discusses key themes such as perceptions about China, civil-military relations, gender and military, nuclear safety, arms trade and cybersecurity, human security, food and water security, soft power and the media's role in covering security issues. As a festschrift for Commodore C. Uday Bhaskar, it highlights and adds to his scholarly contributions to the national security debate in the country for the past three decades. A unique contribution, this volume will be indispensable for students and researchers of politics and international relations, national security, human security, geopolitics, non-traditional security, military and strategic studies, and South Asian studies.




Central Asia


Book Description

Throughout history, Central Asia has formed an important strategic link between the East and the West and been described as the ‘great pivot’ in the early-twentieth century. This book looks at the relations between the Central Asian states and major external powers. It shows how these nations have kept the fragile geopolitics of the region free of the so-called ‘New Great Game’. The volume evaluates the roles of major powers such as Russia, United States, China, Iran, and Turkey, as well as India and its ‘Silk Road Strategy’. It also compares the regional geopolitics of Central Asia with its neighbour Caucasus. The study indicates how, despite limited inter-state cooperation, the region has prevented conflicts and wars, due to which these states have been able to enjoy greater strategic autonomy in their dealings with other countries. The book will benefit scholars and researchers of international relations, political and strategic studies, area studies, and Central Asian studies apart from the interested general reader.