The increasingly rapid rise of India as an Asian power holds wide implications for the Asia-Pacific region and Australia.
Dr Sandy Gordon, Visiting Fellow with CEPS, states in the May edition of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that, "India’s role in the Asia–Pacific is still circumscribed by a number of restraints that act to shape a ‘continental’ posture to its security—despite its ‘Look East’ rhetoric".

"Factors determining the continental posture include India’s difficult internal and border security environments; its large number of people still living in poverty; its strategy of ‘inclusive growth’, which diverts resources from classic force projection capabilities; the problems of corruption and poor governance; the existence of a negative feedback loop between those domestic ills and problems in the equally troubled South Asian neighbourhood; emerging environmental and resource problems; and China’s continuing ability to fish in South Asia’s troubled waters. South Asia is a difficult neighbourhood for India’s evolution as a world power", he says.

Read the full version of Dr Gordon's article in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's May 2012 edition (PDF, 944KB)