Strategic Cultures as ‘the Powers’: Kautilya’s Hindu Statecraft and the ‘String of Pearls’ in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

What is strategic culture? How does strategic culture help us to understand the international dynamics in the Indian Ocean? How could we make sense of the ‘string of pearls’ phenomenon in the Indian Ocean? These questions set the terrains of this chapter. I will first engage with a scholarly debate on strategic culture. Based on the debate, I will develop an alternative approach in conceiving strategic culture as ‘the Powers’ (Wong in Discerning the powers in Post-Colonial Africa and Asia: A treatise on Christian statecraft. Springer Science + Business Media, Heidelberg & Singapore, 2016a: Chap. 1). Through examining Kautilya’s ancient Hindu statecraft as a lens to unpack contemporary Indian strategic culture, case studies from the South Asian small powers of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh will illustrate how the ‘string of pearls’ was formed. The argument will go into this direction: on one hand, the ‘string of pearls’ is formed consequential of India’s strained relations with her small power-neighbours. On the other hand, as both the South Asian small powers and China find each other useful to counter the hegemonic thrust of India, the ‘string of pearls’ was formed in the Indian Ocean region.