VOLUME 10, ISSUE 3 (October 2026)

The Indo-Pacific region has become a critical theatre in contemporary geopolitics, marked by competing strategic interests, expanding naval presence and intensifying power rivalries. As the region hosts critical Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs), growing military infrastructure, extensive trade routes and abundant natural resources, its evolving geopolitical landscape has added significant complexity to the existing regional security framework. The study provides a theoretically grounded analysis of the evolving power structure in the Indo-Pacific, emphasising shifting strategic partnerships and emerging patterns of maritime competition and cooperation among the major players. Employing the analytical perspectives of Realist theory and Mahanian Sea Power theory, the study examines how naval expansion, maritime domain control, and sea-lane security priorities influence state behaviour and regional strategic outcomes. It argues that India’s maritime strategic posture can be understood as a balancing response within a rapidly intensifying security environment defined by India-China rivalry and broader major-power competition. By integrating classical strategic thought with contemporary geopolitical developments, the study demonstrates the continued explanatory relevance of realist and sea power frameworks in interpreting present Indo-Pacific security dynamics and the evolving regional security architecture.

Northeast India, situated at the crossroads of South, Southeast and East Asia, is at a dynamic crossroads. With over 98 percent of its geographical area as international borderland, the region occupies strategic significance while also accentuating India’s national security vulnerability. As a result, the region is viewed primarily from a core-centric security lens by both the colonial and postcolonial state. The ongoing fencing along the India-Myanmar border is an example of security-centric border policy. New Delhi’s preoccupation with security concerns has sustained a border outlook designed for colonial purposes. The region, largely absent from both Indian and global imagination, has now re-emerged as a zone of domestic priority as well as international cooperation. India’s pursuit of the Act East Policy (AEP) and the broader geopolitical shift to the Indo-Pacific have made the region highly strategic. As the ‘gateway to Southeast Asia’ and now the Indo-Pacific, the region is being re-evaluated. The success of AEP and the integration into the Indo-Pacific will, however, require a radical re-imagination of the Northeast, particularly the Indo-Myanmar borderlands, as Myanmar is the only land border between India and Southeast Asia. The India-Myanmar borderland, inhabited by Indigenous communities, constitutes a meeting point of peoples, cultures and goods. It is a space where interconnections go beyond the lines and challenge the ‘spatially exclusive’ notion of borders as geographical containers of society. The paper argues that existing border policies and colonial-era state structures, continued by the (post)colonial state while marginalising borderland communities, also limit India’s national and security interests. While critiquing the top-down, security-centric concept of border, the paper calls for a new border thinking which will ensure freer flow of people, goods and ideas. A border thinking that will restore permeability in a more integrated region without altering the existing borders and thereby reduce the future propensity for tension and conflict. This requires a border-thinking view that sees borders and borderlands as connectors and commons, rather than walls or lines erected to keep the ‘others’ out. Such a policy will not only benefit borderland communities but also strengthen India’s much-needed strategic presence and influence in Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region.

In a rapidly shifting world order, the Indo-Pacific has emerged as the epicentre of geopolitical recalibration. As the post-Cold War unipolar moment fades, the 21st century has witnessed a resurgence of multipolarity — a system where multiple state actors assert influence in regional and global affairs. Within this context, India’s foreign policy is undergoing significant transformations to align itself with the challenges and opportunities of the Indo-Pacific. This article explores how India is navigating this multipolar era and what strategic imperatives it must pursue to preserve its national interest and regional stability.

Framed through a hybrid theoretical lens combining realism and constructivism, the study critically evaluates India’s evolving role in the Indo-Pacific through its engagement in strategic groupings such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI), and bilateral partnerships with Japan, Australia, ASEAN, and the United States. The paper interrogates India’s attempt to balance power while upholding regional inclusivity, democratic norms, and multilateralism. The paper argues that India’s Indo-Pacific strategy actively seeks to reshape normative structures of regional order. In doing so, India positions itself not as a counterweight alone but as a co-architect of a pluralistic regional future.

Thus, the paper tries to analyse India’s approach in the region, where need-based partnership building becomes a core motive, and at the same time improving its internal capabilities, especially in the maritime sector, also plays an important role in mitigating the challenges arising out of contemporary geopolitical changes like the rise of China and great power play in the Indo-Pacific region. It also examines growing areas of challenge in India’s approach towards the Indo-Pacific, including a low naval budget, problems in India’s economic engagement with its neighbours, and India’s balancing act between the West and China and Russia, which might hinder India’s Indo-Pacific progress.

Bhutan’s unique geographical location between two major rising powers of Asia with opposite political ideologies in the 21st century offers it an extremely crucial geopolitical position. Historically, Bhutan has balanced its relations between India and Tibet, but in recent times it has been closer to India for the last 5-6 decades. The geopolitical shift in the Himalayan region closely influences India-Bhutan bilateral relations. China’s rising assertiveness, cross-border territorial disputes, and the expanding regional ambitions has introduced new complexities on security concerns in the region. India and Bhutan, bound by deep historical, strategic, and cultural ties, have adapted their security collaboration to meet emerging challenges ranging from border tensions to infrastructure competition. The paper will examine how traditional and non-traditional security threats are transforming in the Himalayan region, impacting India-Bhutan relations. It will further probe the strategic measures that need to be collectively taken to combat the emerging threats.

This Paper covers the themes of Heritage, Culture of Memory, nostalgia, and social dimensions through the example of the Sadiya Serpent Pillar, with its historical significance and present relevance. As evidenced by the Sadiya Serpent Pillar, the Northeast of India has historically been a thriving crossroads of civilisations, linking the Indian subcontinent with Tibet, Southwest China, and Southeast Asia. Through the Act East Policy, regional connectivity, and civilizational diplomacy, this historical connectivity offers crucial insights for comprehending India’s current role in Asia. The past of the Northeast region not only informs the present but also shapes the future of this region’s political, economic and Social Dynamics. Therefore, it is important to analyse complex relationships among memory, heritage, and belonging through this symbolic pillar, which stands at the cross-junction of the past, present, and future of this region. The paper covers different themes related to this pillar. 1. Serpent pillar at the frontier of a civilisation and its history and symbolism 2. The Research Methodology for this paper 3. The targeted audience of this pillar: locals, traders or rival Polities. 4. The Pillar sits along trade routes linking Assam to Tibet, Yunnan and Upper Burma; the serpent imagery reflects shared Asian Cosmological symbols and not isolated local beliefs. Therefore, it is not a pillar of the margins; rather, it is a significant pillar at the cross-junction of different Civilizations. 5. The Sadiya Pillar is absent from mainstream policy issues, and what is its present relevance? 6. Conclusion: how all these themes connect the past of Sadiya to the present and also to the future possibilities of this region.