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INDIA AND ASEAN: The Politics of India's Look East Policy. Edited by Frederic Grare and Amitabh Mattoo. New Delhi: Manohar Publishers & Distributors (in association with Centre de Sciences Humaine, New Delhi, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, and Centre for the Study of National Security Policy, New Delhi). 2001. 248 pp. (Tables.) Rs.500, cloth. ISBN 817304-330-2.
Between engagements and estrangements, India-ASEAN relations witnessed early exchanges replaced by periods of isolation. A clash of ideologies and superpower activity kept the geographically contiguous regions on opposite sides of the cold war divide. The revival in relations was due as much to postcold war apprehensions about China moving in to fill the vacuum following U.S. withdrawal from the region as to the constraints of liberalized economy under intense globalization. This book is an attempt to examine the complementarities, coincidences or contradictions in economic, strategic and security policy between India and the ASEAN region and to identify the driving force behind India's policy of "Look East", and the role of major powers, notably the U.S. and China, in determining the nature and extent of interaction between India and ASEAN.
India and Southeast Asia interactions remained low due to India's geopolitical containment in South Asia by China and Pakistan. The prospects of future interaction are dependent upon India's...