India's Neighbourhood: Challenges and Opportunities

Contents: Preface. Introduction/Anil Chopra. 1. India-China: Competition or Confrontation/Anil Chopra. 2. India-Pakistan Relations: Dynamics Post Revocation of Article 370/Shalini Chawla. 3. India-Afghanistan Strategic Relations in the Past Three Decades: Post-Cold War, Post 9/11 and Post US Exit/Hashim Wahdatyar. 4. India-Bangladesh: Convergence of Interests/Sreeradha Datta. 5. India-Sri Lanka Relations: Contemporary Challenges and Prospects/Samatha Mallempati. 6. India-Maldives: The Revitalisation of Bilateral Relations/Shantanu Roy-Chaudhury. 7. India-Bhutan Relations: Present Trajectories and Future Possibilities/Medha Bisht. 8. The India-Myanmar Affair: Between a Rock and a Hard Place/Angshuman Choudhury. 9. Harnessing the Potential of Nepal-India Relations: Challenges and Prospects/Pramod Jaiswal. 10. India and Iran in the Changing West Asian Regional Order/Anu Sharma. 11. Hydrodynamics in South Asia/Uttam Kumar Sinha. 12. India, South Asia and Climate Change Cooperation: Challenges and Opportunities/DhanasreeJayaram and Priyanka Jaiswal. 13. Trends in Terrorism in India’s Neighbourhood/Kriti M. Shah. 14. Rare Earth Elements and India’s Neighbourhood/Neha Mishra.

India’s neighbourhood has witnessed crucial developments in the last decade: complex security challenges, looming economic crises, socio-political unrest, border clashes, China’s expanding engagement, India’s rising profile, and the COVID-19 pandemic. For New Delhi to promote its national interests and drive the momentum of its growth trajectory, stability in its neighbourhood is indeed important. As a global player, India is increasingly looking to partner and extend cooperation in the growth of its neighbourhood. Over the last eight years, India has advocated the “Neighbourhood First” policy which ‘focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity’. India’s neighbourhood presents complex dynamics, and the challenges demand attention and serious consideration in its policy options. The versatile neighbourhood also offers opportunities for India to extend cooperation at the regional level and address common strategic, economic, social and security concerns. India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges and Opportunities with insights of leading experts is a timely contribution to academia, practitioners, and keen readers. The book fills a critical void in the domain of neighbourhood studies and comprehensively analyses India’s bilateral relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The book assesses the traditional security challenges like terrorism, examines crucial non-traditional security issues (hydro-politics and climate change), scans the emerging dynamics of rare earth elements and evaluates the wider possibilities of India’s role in stirring regional cooperation in these key areas.