The India-US relationship through the prism of the regional security complex theory: To what extent have regional security issues led to dramatic improvements in the US-Indian relations?

Résumé du document

In 2003, the professors in International Relations Barry Buzan, at the London School of economics, and Ole Waever from the University of Copenhagen, published a book exploring a new field in Theory of International Relations: Regions and Powers- The Structure of International Security. This work laid the foundations of the concept of Regional Security Complex (RSC), arguing that the main schools of thought in International Relations- Neorealism, Neoliberalism, Neomarxism-are wrong in explaining the world systematically globally, and that it is necessary to differentiate geographical levels in International Relations (IR). While these main theories focus whether on the domestic level or the global level, the regional level is essential to understand the international relations: indeed, regions are "mini systems" where all theories of IR can be applied, including the Balance of Power theory.

To that extent, it is difficult to identify Buzan and Waever in a specific school of thought, because their theory, by considering all the different levels of international relations- from the domestic affairs to the systemic relations between States-, takes in fact arguments on most of the main theories. They include as well constructivist elements in their theory, notably when talking about the "level of amity and enmity" in a region and how these feelings are created. Their main contribution is to add to the view of a systemic and interdependent world order the concept of "regional interdependence": the security interdependence between States is always more important at the regional level.

Extraits

[...] ) following India into a more independent, middle-ground position between Washington and Beijing.” Buzan and Waever : p.46 “South Asia provides a clear example, where the wars and rivalries of the subcontinent constitute a disctinctive pattern that has been little affected by events in the Gulf or in the Southeast Asia.” Ibid, p Ibid, p.47 Ibid, p.47 Ibid, p.104 Ibid, p.104 “Pakistan sought from an early stage to associate itself with the Ibid, p.104 . ) the local split in South Asia became tied into, and reinforced by, the global level patterns of the US-Soviet and Chinese- Soviet rivalries.” Ibid, p.124 Buzan 2001 : Pakistan isseen mostly as an irritant, and not even its nuclear threat is taken seriously. [...]

[...] before the death of Ben Laden, that revealed that the most researched terrorist in the world has lived 500 meters away from a Pakistani Military Academy, near the centre of a large city of Pakistan, in a huge and well-protected residence . far from the images of Al-Qaida's chief in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. A broader issue : the nuclear and military cooperation between the USA and India. The nuclear cooperation is an essential element in the US-Indian relation. [...]

[...] Ibid, p.45 Ibid, p There is global web of security interdependence. But because insecurity is often associated with proximity, this interdependence is far from uniform.” There are “regionally based clusters, where security interdependence is markedly more intense between the states inside such complexes than between states inside the complexs outisde.” Ibid, p.99 Ibid, p.28 Ibid, p & 37 As he argued in April 2001 in “South Asia Moving Towards Transformation: Emergence of India as a Great Power” or in Buzan 2007:9 : . [...]

[...] and other regions «remain either as independent power centers or under US influence, Chinese hegemony on land in East and Southeast Asia will not tip the world balance of power».) ; India, at the same time, is willing to integrate the world's system and to expand economically rather than militarily, and wish as well to limit the global threat of China - these shared global interests are essential and have to be as well to be taken into account to understand the shift in the India-US relationship. References : - Regions and Powers - The Sructure of International Security, Barry Buzan and Ole Waever, Cambridge University Press - Leader Without Followers? The United States in World Politics after Barry Buzan, Policy Paper The Global Policy Institute, Nov London Metropolitan University. [...]

[...] Indeed, as we said, the tensions in the area have been exacerbated by both superpowers during these years : the demise of the USSR could at this time, theoretically, appease the tensions in the zone. Actually, it did : the regional tensions have been softened, a decade after the end of the Cold War : according to Buzan, India, at the beginning of the XX th century, does not consider nor Pakistan neither China as the main threats to its national security, rather the USA. [...]