ISAS Briefs

As several Asian nations, large and littoral, rise to counterbalance the Western powers, it is imperative for the global community to examine the geopolitics of the larger Asian region that has yet to find a sustainable framework for cooperation. When dissecting Asia’s geopolitical landscape, perhaps the most recurrent theme is China’s ‘String of Pearls’ strategy and its significance in the Sino-Indian strategic quandary. Since it was coined, nearly a decade ago, in a Booz Allen report for the Pentagon to describe the perceived encirclement of India in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the phrase has often been used to depict the precariousness of the competition between the two aspiring hegemons, wherein almost every decision made by either country can be viewed as a potential threat by its counterpart.