CSS 2017 Solved Current Affairs Past Papers | US-India Partnership Over the Indian Ocean
The following question of CSS Current Affairs 2017 is solved by Sir Ammar Hashmi, the best Current Affairs Coach, on the guided pattern of Sir Syed Kazim Ali, which he taught to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. This solved past paper question is uploaded to help aspirants understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
Question Breakdown
This question has one part in which we are supposed to analyze the impacts of the US-India partnership, specifically in terms of the Indian Ocean and the security situation in the region.
Outline
1-Introduction
2-Explaining US-India strategic partnership in different domains
- ✓ Defense and Security
- ✓ Economic and Trade Relations
- ✓ Counterterrorism
- ✓ Indo-Pacific Security
- ✓ Space and Technology
- ✓ Energy Security
3-Impacts of the burgeoning US-India strategic partnership on the region’s security situation and Indian Ocean Region
- ✓ Increased Tensions with China
- Evidence: The Quad Security Dialogue and heightened military activity in the South China Sea, such as the Galwan Valley clash in 2020.
- ✓ Regional Arms Race
- Evidence: New tech helicopter and marine assistance from the USA to India.
- ✓ Strain on Regional Alliances
- Evidence: regional countries like China and India have become enemies of each other due to this partnership.
- ✓ Potential for Increased Military Confrontation
- Evidence: China and India both can clash with each other due to security interests.
- ✓ Augmented Geopolitical Strain
- Evidence: due to this strategic partnership, geopolitical tension in South Asia is burgeoning.
- ✓ Environmental and Strategic Effect of Increased Military Activities
- Evidence: loss of species underwater due to increasing militarization.
- ✓ Infringement of regional trading routes
- Evidence: trade routes have become threats to other nations due to this strategic partnership.
4-Suggestion to overcome security concerns in the region.
- ✓ Evidence: Book Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power
5-Critical analysis
6-Conclusion
Answer to the Question
Introduction
Among the dimensions of security in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), such as regional security and military cooperation, the US and India have made impressive strides considering the improvement in their strategic foreign relations. However, this emerging alliance has some adverse effects. For example, the growing defence cooperation and naval deployment between the US and India has created confrontations with China, as evidenced by increased military activities emanating from China, including strategic defensive moves. Moreover, the bilateral relationship of India with its immediate neighbours has also been worsened by the relationship. This was also combined with the issues of national sovereignty and national interference. Besides that, more military institutionalization may lead to involuntary clashes or backfire by environmental degradation. Also, remote and restricted sea areas with naval forces may block trade in other parts of the world, impacting logistical supply chains. These examples bring to light some of the many-sided advantages of the partnership between India and us within the Indian Ocean region, especially as it is becoming increasingly active and progressing.
Explaining US-India strategic partnership in different domains
- Defence and Security
The defence collaboration is the only arena in the relations between the United States and India that has seen the most recent expansion. In the past two decades, the US has enhanced interoperability and coordination, become India’s largest partner in military exercises, concluded technical arrangements for the transfer of improved American military technologies to India, and emerged as a supplier of military equipment to India. In addition to their bilateral collaboration, the US and India are important allies in “The Quad,” a newly formed strategic alliance comprising the governments of the US, Japan, Australia, and India. For example, the US State Department data states that the total defence trade with India increased from almost nothing in 2008 to over $20 billion in 2020.
- Economic and Trade Relations
Overall, bilateral commerce in goods and services between the United States and India hit a record $157 billion in 2021. India’s biggest export market and commercial partner is the United States. Numerous American businesses have extended their operations in India because they see it as a vital market. Similar to this, Indian businesses aim to expand into American markets. As of the end of 2020, $12.7 billion in Indian investments have been made in the US, supporting over 70,000 American employees. The approximately 200,000 Indian students enrolled in American universities contribute $7.7 billion to the country’s GDP annually.
- Counterterrorism:
As an essential component of their larger bilateral cooperation, the United States and India reaffirmed their commitment to combating terrorism and advancing regional security. They also highlighted the exceptional value and enduring nature of their complete global and strategic alliance.
- Indo-Pacific Security
Putting a strong emphasis on the development of Indian military capability, especially in the marine sector, which would be the principal arena of the Indo-Pacific conflict, has historically received Indian strategic attention, and where even little advancements can have a significant impact. Both countries have signed many security pacts in this domain.
- Energy Security
In the field of energy, the United States and India have a long-standing and fruitful strategic alliance. Year after year, the two nations’ technical, commercial, and bilateral energy cooperation strengthens. Besides, launched in November 2009, the Partnership to Advance Sustainable Energy (PACE) between the United States and India aims to promote sustainable energy technology development and deployment to accelerate inclusive, low-carbon growth.
Impacts of the burgeoning US-India strategic partnership over the region’s security situation in the Indian Ocean Region
- Increased Tensions with China
In particular, enhancing the US-India strategic cooperation has provoked a significant increase in tensions with China, which sees this partnership as threatening its hegemony in the area and safety. This is evident from the formative stage of the Quad Security Dialogue comprising the United States, India, Japan and Australia, with which China feels encircled in the Indo-Pacific. China has, therefore, begun to assert its military offensives in the South China Sea and launch physical border incursion on India, for example, the recent killings in the Galwan Valley on June 7, 2020. These developments show that the US-India dyad increases regional conflict and worsens the region’s security context.
- Regional Arms Race
The United States and Indian defence cooperation have exacerbated and fueled an arms race in the Indian Ocean Region. Large arms contracts and technology transfers between the two countries, with the US supplying India with sophisticated equipment such as P-8I maritime patrol aircraft and MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, have built up in the region. For instance, our neighbouring state, Pakistan, has only increased its defence spending and modernization initiatives in such equipment. This arms race has increased military tension within this region and may trigger insecurity in this particular region.
- Strain on Regional Alliances
There is also evidence that the growth of the US–India strategic partnership has caused a shift of loyalties in South Asia, especially from Russia to India. The transition has led to a discernible decline in arms imports from Russia, which has strained traditional strategic partnerships. This realignment is well captured by India’s increasing defence partnership with the US and diminishing purchasing of military hardware from Russia. Typically, such transitions in alliances have resulted in a situation where there are many players with complex relationships and, therefore, little security.
- Possibilities of Intensifying Armed Conflicts
Joint military drills and cooperation are priority areas in this strategic relationship between the US and India for the chance for accidental or intentional military encounters. China is concerned with the Malabar Exercise, which brings together the US, India, Japan and Australia, prompting its military watchfulness plus action. Rising numbers of troops converge in disputed zones like the India-Ocean and South China Sea, causing unintentional collisions or showdowns, possibly resulting in regional instability.
- Augmented Geopolitical Strain
India’s close relationship with the US has increased geopolitical tension, particularly between China and Pakistan. As the defensive and strategic partnership between the USA and India has been evolving, China has responded by deploying more naval force in Gwadar, which is located in Pakistan and has boosted military actions in the regions of the area. This reaction aligns with the more prominent Chinese perception of being surrounded or ‘contained’ by US-India collaboration. Over recent years, the increased naval force and military activities of China and the acquisition of new assets underscore the current tension between geopolitical counterparts and show how the partnership has led to a more tense and complex environment.
- Impact of Amalgamated Military Activities Concerning the Environment & Strategy
High-intensity naval cooperation and everyday operational endeavours based on US-India strategic cooperation have been discernible for environmental and strategic impacts. Increased nature exploitation, primarily through large-scale exercises and operations in sensitive maritime areas, has intensified ecological degradation. For instance, multiple naval movements can interfere with the physical marine environment, and its outcome may include the blowing up of oil and a negative impact on marine life. Moreover, the location of different military operations in vulnerable areas increases the chances of more blunders or mishaps not only in terms of the environment but also as threats to the ecological balance and strategic stability of the concerned area.
- Disregard the regional trading routes
In the broader picture of cooperation between the US and India, the key concern arises for the sea trade connectivity where strategic waters, including the Strait of Hormuz, remain highly sensitive. The proliferation of military contingents and sea vessels in such vital zones will likely distort the provision of existing supply channels and the economic status of societies. For instance, the more the military powers concentrate on such strategic chokepoints, the likelihood that the free flow of cargo through sea transport may be affected since vessels and ships would have to slow down or halt so as not to be captured by the military. This can distort international relations, significantly impacting the dependence of local economies and global trade that has grown to rely on secure sea lanes.
A way forward to minimize the security concerns in the region and the Indian Ocean Region.
To effectively counter any security threat in the IOR, one must understand that diplomatic measures and cooperation are the best strategies to adopt. Rarely does one see the rise of regional institutions (such as IORA) 19 and the advocating for inclusive dialogue among said stakeholders to cool down the existing tensions. Military transparency should be improved, and measures that can be taken to build confidence that can be damaged, along with the signs of an approaching conflict, should be introduced, such as joint exercises under the umbrella of a humanitarian organization. As noted by Robert D. Kaplan in “Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power,” the sharing of multilateral cooperation and the ability to maintain and regulate regional tensions is crucial to sustaining security and stability in this significant region (Kaplan, 2010). This strategy goes beyond fixing security problems and paves the way for perpetual stability and collaboration of the various countries of the Indian Ocean Region.
Critical Analysis
Although the proposed strategy for enhancing diplomatic engagement and regional cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region appears reasonable, it might encounter real hurdles. As much as regional bodies such as IORA need to be revitalized and dialogues promoted to ease tensions in this area, achieving consensus might become quite challenging due to diverging interests among different regional powers.
Conclusion
In conclusion, addressing the political violence in the Indian Ocean Region needs a compelling mix of engagement and actions. Forming institutions like IORA and military confidence-building measures will help stabilize and promote regional peace. However, these strategies are likely to be effective only when all stakeholders are willing to sit down and talk and bargain. Indeed, there is such a need for a constant complement to these principles if continuity of peace and stability in this area is to be guaranteed, more so where there are changing regional dynamics to effectively and positively address security aspects
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