INDO PACIFIC SECURITY PERSPECTIVES : UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT BE STRATEGICALLY DISTRACTED FROM INDO PACIFIC BY UKRAINE WAR

Sunday, July 24, 2022

UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT BE STRATEGICALLY DISTRACTED FROM INDO PACIFIC BY UKRAINE WAR

Russia's invasion of Ukraine underway should not lead United States to repeat its historical mistake of the first decade of 21st Century wherein its strategic distractions in Afghanistan and Iraq, in the vacuum so created, facilitated China to build up its Blue Water Navy and predatory dominance over South China perceptions--- both moves creating perceptions of United States as a Declining Power.

China's recent strategic forays deep down in South Pacific Island Nations is a stark reminder how China exploits strategic inattentiveness. United States and Australia had taken for granted that the South Pacific is their area of influence.

China in 2022 has thus acquired monstrous and menacing monstrous military profile, so much so, that it now feels emboldened not only to coerce US Allies and Strategic Partners in Indo Pacific, but also strong enough to directly challenge United States predominance.

US President Biden's recent statements that the United States would focus more on European security amounts to wrong political signalling to both China and to QUAD partners of United States in Indo Pacific.

China would very much welcome diversion of US strategic focus from Indo Pacific security China-centric challenges to Europe. China would also welcome even the US strategic focus to be divided between Indo Pacific and Europe.

In both cases above US strategic focus, fully or divided, offers China military bandwidth to expand China's military signatures in the Indo Pacific.

China's recent predatory moves in South Pacific evidently highlights how strategic vacuums enable China to gain strategically.

The United States should leave the 'Defence of Europe' to European Nations and goad 'Free Riders' like Germany riding on US security commitments to Europe, to shoulder European security load.

Concluding, it is my assessment that there is and should not be any predicament for United States to choose between European Security and Indo Pacific Security. In the third decade of 21st Century, it is China and its menacing predatory moves in Indo Pacific that vitally threaten US National Security in the coming decades.

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Dr Subhash Kapila—Academic & Professional Profile

Dr Subhash Kapila is a Graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College.UK.: has a Masters in Defence Science from Madras University with his thesis on ‘India’s Foreign Policy in Far East Asia’ and a Doctorate from Allahabad University with his thesis in 1994 on ‘Asia Pacific Security-2000 AD Perspectives’.

Dr Subhash Kapila combines a rich and varied professional experience of Indian Army (Brigadier) in criteria appointments on Command, Staff and Instructional. Indian Army service encompassed long tenures on India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

Dr Subhash Kaila’s professional exposures also include diplomatic assignments in United States, Japan, South Korea and also official tenures in UK and Bhutan. These years of diplomatic and official assignments afforded deep insights on Asia Pacific security challenges and China-watching from different perches.

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored two books--- ‘China-India Military Confrontation:21^st Century Perspectives’ (2015) and an earlier one on India’s Defence Policies & Strategic Thought-A Comparative Analysis’ (2004)

Dr Subhash Kapila has authored over nearly 2000 Papers on Geopolitical, Foreign Policy and Strategic topics of Major Powers like USA, China, Japan and regional issues of South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East.

Dr Subhash Kapila has presented Papers at international forums in Russia, Japan, Turkey and Vietnam and National and University Seminars in India.

Invited for TV/Radio discussions by CNN, BBC, Pakistan Geo TV and multiple Indian Channels.

INDO PACIFIC REGION—GEOPOLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

“Indo Pacific Region encompassing the vast geographical expanse from West Coast of the United States to the Eastern Littoral of Africa on the Indian Ocean and Australia in South Pacific has emerged in recent years as a fulcrum of global security and stability.

Competing security narratives led by the United States and a reactive hardly credible narrative by China challenges foreign policy and security policies directions of Major Powers in the Indo Pacific comprising United States. India, Japan and Australia.

Needless to highlight as so many academic treatises have already done so that Indo Pacific Security Template as a strategic construct and narrative emerged so as a narrative in the last decade generated by fears of China’s not so benign intentions manifested from Himalayan Heights of China Occupied Tibet borders with India to the Western Pacific seas, and more pointedly to the South China Sea where China has indulged in military aggression ad coercive brinkmanship to establish “Full Spectrum Dominance” endangering Indo Pacific Security as a whole.”------------Dr Subhash Kaila’s earlier writings.

“The Indo Pacific has assumed tectonic significance for a wide range of nations affirming their agency in an uncertain world. Far from being an obscure account of of words and maps, the narratives of Indo Pacific nations hands a great dilemma of the 21^st Century: how can other countries respond to a strong and coercive China without resorting to capitulation or conflict.” –Professor Rory Metcalf, Australian National University.

“In this century, the Asia Pacific and the Indian Ocean Rim which some refer as the Indo Pacific will become the world’s centre of gravity.”---Australian Defence Minister