South Asian Security: 21st Century Discourses

This book is about the South Asian security complex which refers to security interdependencies between the states in the region but also includes the effect that powerful external actors (eg. China, the US and Russia) and geopolitical interests have/ have had on regional dynamics. South Asia comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Afghanistan, all of whom are members of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). The Indian subcontinent was under British colonial rule until 1947 and security was defined in terms of the challenges and threats faced by the British Indian empire and the priority accorded to the protection of British interests. The successor states, i.e. the sovereign states of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, inherited the emphasis on defence (understood in traditional terms) from the British and adopted a state-centric approach to security. To this day the states in the region have maintained their defensive postures vis-à-vis one another.