Amid challenges stemming from a complex international environment, Vietnam, under its new leadership, is seeking to influence the evolving regional strategic discourse.
The monograph aims to bring Chinese perspectives and debates to the analyses of military reform. It explores and analyses the way China has shaped its military power, to counter challenges to the great rejuvenation, and the drivers and motivations behind the implementation of military reforms. China’s association with military power and its relation to world-class military in the New Era are driven by its worldview and security perceptions. Therefore, the monograph elucidates the political framework for military reforms as it would help identify under what circumstances that military power would be utilised. Finally, it looks at the challenges that China is facing when building its military power and the implications for India.
The New Delhi Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting reinforced the framework's practical mechanisms for shaping the Indo-Pacific's political and economic architecture.
Over the past decade, India's Act East Policy has shifted from occasional interaction to a steady, institutionalized presence across Southeast Asia and Oceania. This monograph argues that by prioritizing normative alignment, maritime security, and collaborative partnerships over coercive power, India has solidified its standing as a credible regional stakeholder. Future success depends on deepening functional cooperation and improving project execution to translate this established influence into long-term strategic relevance and regional stability.
This paper examines education as a realist tool for soft power in West and East Asia, responding to Jane Knight’s call for regionalisation research. Challenging her liberal vision of knowledge diplomacy, it argues that states leverage higher education to navigate power struggles, counter external influence, and secure national interests. Historical and contemporary examples reveal education’s unpredictable outcomes, necessitating state learning from successful models. While complementing hard and economic power, education’s ideological divides, notably China’s non-liberal norms, fuel regional rivalry, risking instability. Asian states, including India, can strategically use education to enhance security and influence in a competitive global order.
