Abstract
The world order is in a constant mode of transformation. There is an aura of fading uateralism and ‘rise of the Rest’ viz-a-viz the West in the global setting. Consequently, this shift in power augurs well to the rise of the ‘Asian century’, hinging majorly on states like India and China. In this regard, pronounced as the largest democracy and rapidly developing country, India has a pressing urge to act ‘powerful’. It desires to advance its interface with the world as a ‘major’ power, in the wake of declining uni-polarity. On the other hand, it seeks to boost its power projection in considerable sectors of the global economic and military indicators. Nonetheless, in these emerging trends, the United States is looking towards a proxy role of India in the region and in that perspective is also seeking to promote India as its ‘face’. On the other hand, China as an emerging economic giant is steadily growing and posing threat to the status quo as desired by the Americans. In this scenario, Pakistan, as a neighbour to both India and China and ally to the US, cannot remain in isolation from the emerging trends and its repercussions. This setting indeed has the tendency to fuel an aura of ‘strategic competition’ amongst these states. In addition, it has also paved way for new power structures and global rebalancing of potential participants. Nonetheless, this paper analyzes as to whether India has eventually achieved status of a ‘major’ power, capable of influencing the international political arena or otherwise. The central argument rests on the notion: is India a major power or is it a major power in the making? And more importantly, will it be able to achieve this status in the realm of China and US global competition? And finally, how is Pakistan likely to be effected by these aspirations?
Keyword(s)
Major power, strategic competition, regional power structure