Asian Politics Research Articles

Designing and teaching an effective undergraduate seminar on Asia-Pacific international relations

This article describes the process of pedagogical thinking and design behind an advanced undergraduate seminar at a liberal arts college on “the international relations of the Asia-Pacific.” From the perspective of the instructor, a former research analyst from Singapore who switched to academia in the United States in mid-career, key lessons were learned about effective pedagogy while designing and teaching two iterations of the course to students generally unfamiliar with Asian politics and history. This article details the use of an iterative process in course design and pragmatism in teaching students how to acquire skills in political analysis and understanding, when faced with the fact that some students would take the course without any background knowledge of either the region or international relations theory. It shows how using student feedback and being flexible with assessment methods can improve course design and enhance student satisfaction and active learning. Having students take turns leading discussions, using a small crisis simulation exercise to consolidate knowledge and to hone students’ debating skills, and granting the option for a final via a viva rather than a written examination, were beneficial mechanisms for instructor and students. The instructor’s desire to create a classroom that was open to multicultural perspectives also influenced the teaching methods and tenor of the course.

Analyzing media coverage of implications on India after Afghanistan's takeover by Taliban

Asian Politics & PolicyVolume 14, Issue 2 p. 286-289 MEDIA REVIEW Analyzing media coverage of implications on India after Afghanistan's takeover by Taliban Abhijit Anand, Corresponding Author Abhijit Anand [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-2917-8155 Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Correspondence Abhijit Anand, Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, A/907, Uvarsad-Vavol Rd, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382422, India. Email: [email protected] Search for more papers by this authorTanya Pandey, Corresponding Author Tanya Pandey [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-9627-385X Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Correspondence Abhijit Anand, Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, A/907, Uvarsad-Vavol Rd, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382422, India. Email: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author Abhijit Anand, Corresponding Author Abhijit Anand [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0003-2917-8155 Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Correspondence Abhijit Anand, Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, A/907, Uvarsad-Vavol Rd, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382422, India. Email: [email protected] Search for more papers by this authorTanya Pandey, Corresponding Author Tanya Pandey [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-9627-385X Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India Correspondence Abhijit Anand, Unitedworld Law School, Karnavati University, A/907, Uvarsad-Vavol Rd, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382422, India. Email: [email protected] Search for more papers by this author First published: 22 April 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12630Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume14, Issue2April 2022Pages 286-289 RelatedInformation

The Phantom World of Digul: Policing as Politics in Colonial Indonesia, 1926–1941 Takashi Shiraishi Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press and Kyoto University Press, 2021. 372 pages

Asian Politics & PolicyVolume 14, Issue 2 p. 295-297 BOOK REVIEW The Phantom World of Digul: Policing as Politics in Colonial Indonesia, 1926–1941 Takashi Shiraishi Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press and Kyoto University Press, 2021. 372 pages Lin Hongxuan, Lin Hongxuan orcid.org/0000-0002-4517-6769 Asia Research Institute, National University of SingaporeSearch for more papers by this author Lin Hongxuan, Lin Hongxuan orcid.org/0000-0002-4517-6769 Asia Research Institute, National University of SingaporeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 April 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12637Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume14, Issue2April 2022Pages 295-297 RelatedInformation

A Shift of Global Political Economy to Asia: Case Study of RCEP

The year 2020 has proven to be quite a resounding for global politics has undergone radical and significant changes leaving deep imprints on the geopolitical landscape of central power politics. This year the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc, bringing about unprecedented scales of bars on the pace of globalization. The U.U.U.ithdrew from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of a bloody war on terror. China consolidated its rise as a new hegemon in the shape of a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The decreasing influence of the USA has provided China with ample opportunity to register itself as the new rising hegemon of the world. However, it has already established itself as a dominant player on the chessboard of Asian politics. The consolidation of RCEP as a new emerging economic bloc has cautioned the west of its diminishing influence and shrinking markets. It has opened up many prospects for South Asian countries, especially India and Pakistan, to embark upon a trade boom economic development depending on their choice of joining it.

Framing South Asian politics: An analysis of Indian and Pakistani English print media discourses regarding Kartarpur corridor.

This paper aims to analyze the divergent perspectives of Indian and Pakistani English print media on opening the Kartarpur corridor. It is a four-kilometer-long cordoned-off strip from the Indo-Pak international border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur located in Pakistan. The basic purpose of establishing this corridor is to give easy access to the Indian Sikh community. The initiative was taken into account in August 2018, which resulted in the appearance of a vast quantity of contemplations in the national print media of both countries, especially until the opening of the corridor in November 2019. Print media plays a key role in building knowledge and framing the general public's opinion through interpreting an issue. The data were taken from Dawn, The News International (Pakistan), The Times of India, and Hindustan Times (India) from August 2018 to March 2020 using Lexus Nexus Library. The corpus analysis was carried out by applying the lexical study of Natural Language Processing (NLP) through its Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) tool to find out the general patterns or topics in the print media of both countries. It was found that Pakistani print media terms the Kartarpur corridor as a sign of regional peace, religious tourism, mediation, and diplomatic efforts. In contrast, Indian print media focuses on apprehensions related to traveling modalities, pilgrimage facilities, and tensions between the two states.

THE LIMITS OF A LABEL: FRAMING EASTERN ASIA’S TERRITORIAL CONFLICTS FOR A U.S.-AMERICAN AUDIENCE

This article explores limits to the framing power of several important short terms and phrases typically used within eastern Asia’s international politics. It conceptualises these labels as terminological frames. As frames, these terms/phrases help to set agendas, categorise, emphasise certain perspectives while excluding others from view, and ultimately shape opinions about controversial issues within international politics. Yet, I argue, the limits of frames have been insufficiently explored, especially as frames are taken to new audiences whose understanding of the broader discourses associated with the issues are weaker than that of the original audience. Do these terms still produce framing effects outside of eastern Asia? The study relied on a short survey of 800 U.S.-Americans. Respondents answered differing versions of questions relating to eastern Asian maritime politics in order to ascertain whether the wording and labels used affect evaluation of political issues. Specifically, the survey sought to determine whether use of East Sea vs. Sea of Japan, Northern Territories vs. Southern Kurils, and South China Sea vs. East Sea affected views of maritime disputes and issues relating to Korea, Japan, Russia, China/Taiwan, and Vietnam. It also explored whether an increasingly central phrase in eastern Asia’s maritime territorial disputes—“inherent territory”—presented a stronger claim than other possible phrases claiming territory. Survey results showed no statistical difference through use of one term or label over another. Thus, a certain type of limit to the power of these terminological frames was found. Nevertheless, the survey additionally demonstrated that producing framing effects required only a slight addition to the terminology, confirming the ease of framing international political issues to partisan effect.

Myanmar and the Rohingya: in the shadow of Sino-Indian geopolitical competition

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the geopolitical factors that have been the catalyst for the Rohingya crisis, with special attention on the roles of China and India. It then situates those views through 20 in-depth interviews of informants from Bangladesh who are experts in South and Southeast Asian politics. Bangladesh has borne the brunt of accommodating the fleeing Rohingyas and is currently bearing the ensuing socio-economic costs. The research findings suggest that as a result of Chinese and Indian strategic interest in Myanmar and competition for regional dominance, the Rohingya have become the meat in the sandwich, and the ‘Rohingya crisis’ has been propelled into a status quo.

Acknowledgment of APP Reviewers for 2021

Asian Politics & PolicyVolume 14, Issue 1 p. 147-149 MISCELLANEOUS Acknowledgment of APP Reviewers for 2021 First published: 07 February 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.12627Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume14, Issue1January 2022Pages 147-149 RelatedInformation

Power Politics in South Asia: Analyzing India-US-China-Pakistan strategic quadrilateral

South Asian politics is currently marked by ever-enhancing power politics between India and Pakistan, which is exacerbated by the extra-regional predilections, particularly US and China, to the respective states. Against this backdrop, this research analyzes the security and nuclear dimensions of India-Pakistan power politics. Additionally, it holistically highlights various dynamics of Indo-US strategic partnership and Sino-Pakistan strategic convergence. The theoretical framework used is the concept of power politics to underlie the engagement of regional and extra-regional powers in pursuit of their realist goals in South Asia, while the type of research is exploratory. In the end, it is concluded that the extra-regional influences have been fanning the Pakistan-India contestation, causing instability in the region.

Temporary Displaced Persons (TDPS) from North Waziristan Agency (NWA) in Bannu: Problems and Prospects

Since its inception, Pakistan has always remained an important player in the South Asian politics due to its geographical location and strategic position. The war against terror affected the whole world generally and South Asia particularly. After the 9/11 attacks, the United States came into Afghanistan along with allied forces which pushed militants from Afghanistan to take refuge in near by places. Due to close proximity and vulnerable borders, many of these militants entered Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, which resulted in a huge growth of militancy and extremism in the whole region.On the other side due to close collaboration with the United States in the war against terror, Pakistan suffered more in terms of lives, infrastructure, and the economy as compared to the forces combating terrorism in Afghanistan. This influx of militancy and extremism drove Pakistan to take measures against the advancement of militancy. Forceful strikes from Pakistan security forces on one side shook the structure of militants but on the other side resulted in a huge number of displacement. In the recent wave of displacement from the North Waziristan Agency, people suffered a lot, but later on, the Pakistani government, with the help of the local population and humanitarian agencies, overcome their difficulties and still trying to facilitate and rehabilitate them as soon as their areas became clear of the menace.

CHINA PAKSTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR, REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY; IMPLICATION FOR REGIONAL PEACE AND STABILITY

The politics of the area have long been dominated by realist, nationalistic, weapons race, and security-focused South Asian politics, with limited room for liberalism and solutions to regional and domestic problems. However, because of its economic dependence and multilateralism, CPEC, as a component of BRI, provides a pathway for modernisation in the region. The growth and extension of CPEC may result in economic expansion, regional development, peace, and prosperity. Many people think that CPEC would just benefit Pakistan and China, but in reality, it will have a significant influence on the social, political, and economic landscapes of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Openness and inclusivity are necessary for CPEC to be a source of peace, prosperity, and a tool for conflict resolution.
 It is up against a lot of obstacles and adversaries. Nevertheless, it has the ability to accomplish its goals and build a stable, integrated community in the area. Instead of just countries, regions will reap its advantages. Economic interdependence, free commerce, mutual reconciliation, and cooperation will lead to peace and stability.
 As a result, it is anticipated that as the CPEC project continues to succeed in connecting Central Asia, a new era of regional peace and stability would usher in an improved climate for cooperation and conflict resolution.

The Prospect of Pragmatic Confucian Democracy: Reply to Dryzek, Macedo, Ackerly, and Li

The Prospect of Pragmatic Confucian Democracy: Reply to Dryzek, Macedo, Ackerly, and Li

Symposium Editor’s Introduction: Sungmoon Kim, Democracy After Virtue: Toward Pragmatic Confucian Democracy (2018)

The era of self-absorbed Western liberal democratic triumphalism is long gone—good riddance—even if the ghosts of that post–Cold War period still seem to haunt debates about democratic theory and practice. Clear and fresh thinking about democracy’s value(s) is needed, especially in contexts where it is difficult to disentangle democracy and colonialism. To risk stating the obvious: the reemergence of authoritarianism across the globe only heightens the need for creative democratic theorizing.Sungmoon Kim’s Democracy After Virtue is a book for this moment. Kim makes an important contribution to the kind of problem-oriented and place-based theorizing that The Good Society has long been partial to. Developing his normative democratic vision in conversation with thinkers ranging from John Dewey to Mencius to Benjamin Barber, Kim offers a democratic ideal for East Asian political communities deeply rooted in Confucian practices and virtues.Kim, of course, is not the first to theorize democracy in East Asia. But he aims to fill a democratic gap in burgeoning scholarship on Confucian political philosophy and East Asian democratic theory. Confucian political meritocrats and Confucian democrats, Kim argues, both fail to account for the “circumstances of East Asian politics.” Kim contends that the former, the political meritocrats, neglect the emergence of value pluralism in a “modern” East Asia. As such, their claims are too perfectionist—too committed to a single account of the good—to be justified to diverse East Asian publics. Confucian democrats, on the hand, do not offer a convincing case for democracy given the aforementioned circumstances; according to Kim, their instrumental defense of democratic institutions is tenuous, at best, because nondemocratic institutions may prove better at delivering personal well-being than democratic ones.Kim’s pragmatic Confucian democracy offers a way out of this dilemma. Pragmatist rather than perfectionist, the fact of value pluralism poses no theoretical or practical problem for Kim. And because Kim invokes a specifically Deweyan pragmatism, he provides a stronger justification for democratic institutions than the instrumental accounts advanced by Confucian democrats. A pragmatic Confucian democracy, then, is pragmatic insofar as it is both nonfoundational and justified on no instrumental, pragmatic (in the Deweyan sense) terms. It is Confucian insofar as it recognizes the existence of Confucian moral virtues in East Asian political communities, including a moderate Confucian perfectionism. And it is democratic insofar as it opens space for the free exchange of views regarding the political implications of those (moral) virtues.Participants in this symposium, convened and edited by Brooke Ackerly, raise important questions about the promise and potential pitfalls of Kim’s project. Stephen Macedo celebrates Kim’s ambitious comparative project, but he is skeptical of Kim’s pragmatic commitments and expresses concerns about Kim’s criticisms of political meritocracy. John Dryzek commends Kim’s (Confucian) democratic vision. He believes, however, that Kim’s project needs more empirical support if it is to be justified on pragmatic grounds. Zhuoyao Li is less concerned about empirical evidence than the competing and, potentially conflicting, accounts of pragmatism he thinks underpin Kim’s theory. He, too, however, welcomes Kim’s effort to break new ground on old debates about democracy and Confucianism. Among other things, Brooke Ackerly suggests that Kim pays too much attention to John Dewey and, as a result, overlooks pragmatic resources internal to Confucian political thought. Drawing more on the latter than the former would only strengthen Kim’s project, Ackerly argues. And Ackerly, like the other symposium participants, thinks that Kim’s latest intervention merits the attention of Confucian democrats, Confucian political meritocrats, democratic theorists more generally.Kim has the final word, of course, dismissing some criticisms while grappling with others. His response concludes with a hope that the comparative project undertaken in Democracy After Virtue enriches the pragmatic, Confucian, and democratic traditions. I think the reader will find that in both the book and the symposium, Kim delivers.

From Afghan Pan-Islamism to Turkish Feminism

From Afghan Pan-Islamism to Turkish Feminism

North Korean nuclear program and Six Party Talks: A critical analysis

North Korea is an important figure in Northeast Asian politics due to its growing nuclear program which she claims to have initiated for defence. However, it has disturbed the peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula at large. The tense relations over the years between U.S., its regional allies particularly South Korea and North Korea have affected world politics. Breakdown of the Agreed Framework Agreement of 1994, signed between U.S. and North Korea in 2002, caused a damage to their relationship. Six Party Talks were started to bring stability to region and political certainty among the relations of the stakeholders. However, SPT failed to achieve the desired objectives due to the ambitious interests of the member states. This research paper focuses those obstacles that led to breakdown of the six-party talks. Furthermore, the study addresses the question that how U.S., China and other regional states are handling and exploiting the North Korean nuclear issue for the vested interests. This qualitative study has used secondary sources for data collection and for the analysis it used descriptive-analytical and narrative analysis technique. The study shows that failure and suspension of the SPT have some serious implications on the security of Northeast Asia.

The long shadow of 9/11

It has been two decades since the 9/11 terror attacks, a critical watershed not only for the United States but also for the rest of the world. The youth of today might not have a clear idea of this pivotal event but it had far-reaching repercussions for global politics and public policy, particularly the foreign policies of states and counter-terrorism approaches of governments and international organizations. Since 9/11, the world witnessed US military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the rise of the Islamic State, and the mutation of terrorism beyond religious extremism. The United States under the Biden administration also took time to remember 9/11 but also delivered its first major foreign policy decision—its complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. Known as its longest war to date, the US war on Afghanistan has exacted a toll in the country in terms of time, resources, and the bodies and lives of its own citizens as it sought to rebuild the Afghan nation. However, as the Taliban forces regained power over the country, the US withdrawal instantaneously led to its swift and complete control over the country. The harrowing images of Afghan citizens trying to flee their country to avoid being under the Taliban was a grim reminder of the failure of the original US mission in the war-torn state. Many observers compared this to the US fleeing another war it fought with Vietnam during the Cold War period. 9/11 changed the world and remade the global international order. While terrorism remains an existential threat to states and societies, there has been a paradigm shift to view this security challenge more holistically. For example, the advent of the preventing/countering violent extremism (P/CVE) paradigm sought to generically treat terrorism as a phenomenon across all ideologies and even religions. The hard, militaristic counter-terrorism approach is balanced with a softer, kinetic orientation that addresses the roots of radicalization from a governance and whole-of-society approach. My own research on the Philippines revealed that the adoption of the P/CVE framework by the government did not automatically change the military-dominant orientation of policy toward terrorism. On the contrary, P/CVE became a “sanitized” version of a violent and heavy-handed approach to government-designated terror threats that now include insurgent and rebel groups (Arugay et al., 2021). But the US withdrawal on Afghanistan could also be an indication of how the US will reposition itself as a global superpower. Could this be further proof of the declining US strategic commitment as the world's greatest military power? Or could this mean that the US has finally learned the lessons of calibrating the use of its awesome military as a means of exercising power globally? There are perennial questions that have ramifications on Asia and how its states deal with the US in safeguarding regional peace and stability. Over the past decade, Asian Politics & Policy (APP) has featured cutting-edge research that analyzes the impact of 9/11 and the terror threat in Asia. Most of what we have published are studies that examined the impact of counterterrorism policy in democratic governance. For example, Owens and Pelizzo (2013) found that the global war on terror had a profound impact on the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government in Asian democracies. With regard to state–society relations, Toomey and Singleton (2014) analyzes the official state discourses on terrorism and concluded that the “terrorist” label applied rebel groups in Sri Lanka and Palestine justified the use of overwhelming force. Finally, a study traced the extraordinary evolution of the Abu Sayyaf Group a s jihadist organization to an appendage of the Islamic State (Singh & Singh, 2019). The authors painted a gloomy picture as terrorist organizations can be attached to larger radical movements despite geographic distance and ideological differences. APP looks forward to publishing more studies on the impact of terrorism and political violence in domestic politics and international relations. In this final issue of Asian Politics & Policy for 2021, we offer an array of excellent articles that include topics such as China's Belt and Road Initiative, ASEAN's response to the Rohingya crisis, Russia's Far East development policy, and populism in India under Modi. For the first time, we are also featuring three policy reviews that analyzed the Rohingya refugee crisis, China's COVID-19 diplomacy, and India's telecommunication reforms. We hope that our journal can be a good academic medium for serious and rigorous debates about political issues and public policies in Asia.

Surveillance, Censure and Support: Gender Counting in South Asia

Gender counting has been a longstanding concern of South Asian politics. For the past several years, gender counting has taken on central importance in South Asia in a new register. In both Pakistan and India, as part of a larger discussion on transgender rights and welfare, the state has engaged in various efforts to count the number of transgender persons living within its borders. In this recent (trans)gender counting, we see not only progressive welfare ambitions, but also the resurgence of regressive attitudes and practices towards transgender individuals, the transgender community and kinship practices.

Asian Americans and multiracial politics: the contribution and limits of racial triangulation theory

ABSTRACT This article places Claire Jean Kim’s racial triangulation theory in the context of Kim’s other writings from the late 1990s and early 2000s. I analyze Kim’s theory not as an analytical framework of relational racialization, but as a guide to thinking through the basis of multiracial solidarity. I contend that the power of racial triangulation theory lay in the way it demonstrated how long-term alignments of interest among racial groups could emerge from differentiated racial positions. However, I also argue that Kim’s theory was limited in assuming that racialization was the most important determinant of group interest. Through a re-examination of the 1994 lawsuit filed by Chinese American parents against the San Francisco Unified School District, Ho v. SFUSD, I suggest that comparative race scholars ought to account for class and other power relations within racial and ethnic groups, relations that produce divergent sets of interests unaccounted for by the framework of racial politics understood in terms of racialization and rearticulation.

EXTERNAL ACTORS IN CENTRAL ASIA: MULTILATERAL COOPERATION MECHANISMS

The highly favorable geographic location and rich natural resources are the main attractions of post-Soviet Central Asia. After the disintegration of the U.S.S.R, it became clear that different actors operated differently in this strategically important region. This area occupied different places in their strategies, and their goals were realized using different instruments. Regional disunity (Central Asian states then failed to tune up multilateral cooperation) brought grist to the mill of extra-regional players. Mutual political claims and personal ambitions of the regional leaders made it hard or even impossible to initiate common regional projects. Local contradictions in the water and energy sphere became a serious obstacle on the road towards political interaction when dealing with regional problems, environmental protection being one of them. In short, at that time, Central Asian countries did not yet master the art of pushing aside disagreements and problems for the sake of positive actions. Extra-regional actors capitalized on this fact without reservations. The U.S., the EU, Russia, China, India, Japan, and Turkey proceeded from their long-term interests when they tried to impose their political agenda on the local states and draw them into the sphere of their economic interests. Apparently, they preferred bilateral agreements with each of the Central Asian states, since their importance for each of the external players depended on their economic development, geopolitical significance and natural resources that they possessed. In recent years, the extra-regional states have revised and readjusted their Central Asian politics. Today, they prefer multilateral relations; in some cases, this format has been used for a long time, while other extra-regional countries have only recently employed the “5 + an extra-regional actor” format. Turkey and Japan are two leaders in this respect: they were the first to suggest this format, and others followed suit. Many countries limit their multilateral formats to the foreign minister level and, therefore, to declarations and joint statements. Regional states prefer this format, which allows them to balance out external players and address their own problems. Predictably, Central Asian countries are ready to be involved in multilateral formats.

Balance of Power in South Asia: Concerning Russian Role

Russia's engagement in South Asia has been shaped by its strategic interests: its quest for warm water, the routes of its gas pipeline, and its policy for curtailing U.S. hegemony. It has always been a dominant actor of South Asian Politics. The international dynamics have changed Russian strategies at different intervals. Initially, it was inclined towards India; however, in the current scenario, it has recognized the significance of Pakistan for a peaceful political settlement in Afghanistan and linking the Euro Asian union with South Asia, the Indian Ocean, and beyond. The paper highlights the changes in Russian policies towards South Asia and its due role in the balance of power between Pakistan and India.Russian strategic interest in South Asia and its relationship with India and Pakistan are the sole factors responsible for Russian involvement in BOP between Pakistan and India.