India’s neighbourhood has witnessed crucial developments in the last decade: complex security challenges, looming economic crises, socio-political unrest, border clashes, China’s expanding engagement, India’s rising profile, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last eight years, India has advocated the “Neighbourhood First” policy which ‘focuses on creating mutually beneficial, people-oriented, regional frameworks for stability and prosperity’. India’s neighbourhood presents complex dynamics, and the challenges demand attention and serious consideration in its policy options. The versatile neighbourhood also offers opportunities for India to extend cooperation at the regional level and address common strategic, economic, social and security concerns.

India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges and Opportunities with insights of leading experts is a timely contribution to academia, practitioners, and keen readers. The book fills a critical void in the domain of neighbourhood studies and comprehensively analyses India’s bilateral relations with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Iran, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The book assesses the traditional security challenges like terrorism, examines crucial non-traditional security issues (hydro-politics and climate change), scans the emerging dynamics of rare earth elements and evaluates the wider possibilities of India’s role in stirring regional cooperation in these key areas.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)