Franco-Indian Maritime Cooperation: Implications for the Indo-Pacific

With the shift of the global power center from Europe to Asia, the Indo-Pacific, regarded as the “maritime underbelly” has become the center of geo-economics and geostrategic contestation. This significance of the Indo-Pacific maritime realm has drawn the attention of several regional and extra-regional powers since the past decade. In this changing geopolitical scenario, maritime security has acquired primacy in Indian foreign policy discourse. To counter the growing Chinese presence in its strategic backyard, New Delhi is increasingly looking for partners to advance the idea of ‘Free, Open, and Inclusive Indo-Pacific’ and also to establish itself as a net security provider in the Indian Ocean Region. France is also skeptical of assertive China as a threat to its regional interests. Since 1998, France is India’s all-weather strategic partner. With their shared Indo-Pacific strategy, there is a greater opportunity for them to cooperate in the Indo-Pacific region. Coupled with this bilateral opportunity, the idea of trilateral or minilateral is also gaining ground. Whatever may be the motivation, if realized such frameworks can have far-reaching ramifications. In this context, the paper seeks to analyze the implications of the Franco-Indian relationship in the Indo-Pacific region.

India as a Net Security Provider in Indo-Pacific and Implications for the Region

The US determination to preserve the status-quo and consolidate its global pre-eminence as the sole superpower and China‘s objective to enhance its share in the global power structures are creating US and China great power competitors in the world, specifically in the Asia-Pacific. The initial US Asia-Pacific strategy, which the Trump administration termed as Indo-Pacific strategy, aims to contain China by increasing military presence and making counter-weights in the region. In this 'containing China‘ strategy, India is an important ally and the US sees India‘s potential in the Indian Ocean and beyond as a multiplying factor that could work towards furthering its strategic interests in the region. Therefore, in the wake of US Indo-Pacific Strategy, India portrays itself as an assertive American ally to emerge as a 'net security provider‘ that could further promote the latter‘s vested interests in the region. Hence, the active western support to India contributes to New Delhi‘s pursuit of becoming a regional hegemon. This puts other countries, including Pakistan and China, in serious security dilemma where their legitimate security interests are threatened by the Indo-US attempts to dominate the region. These trends suggest that regional stability is likely to face severe setbacks, and the countries might find themselves in serious military confrontations with each other.

National Power and Regional Security

This chapter analyses the Modi government’s management of national security. It explores the role played by both inherited Hindu nationalist and newer understandings of India’s role as a potential ‘net security provider’ and ‘leading power’. It examines the government’s handling of India’s relations with China and the United States, as well as with Pakistan. And it addresses the vexed issue of security sector reform and military modernisation. It argues that despite considerable ambition and a concerted and largely successful attempt to build a stronger partnership with the US, Modi’s India struggled to come to terms with the sheer scale of the task of extending and leveraging the country’s hard power.

Grand Designs: Assessing the African Energy Security Implications of the Grand Inga Dam

In May 2013 the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) announced that construction of the world’s largest hydroelectric project will begin in October 2015. Upon completion, according to the DRC, the project will bring electricity to half the African continent. With funding from South Africa, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and others, the U.S.$80 billion Grand Inga Hydroelectric project will construct a 44,000 megawatt (MW) dam anchored to a new transmission network able to distribute electricity to all four of sub-Saharan Africa’s regional electricity power pools. While the dam promises to bring electricity to many millions of Africans who currently lack access, the project also poses risks to the citizens and environment of the DRC. To assess the complex tradeoffs, this article evaluates four dimensions that are part of an energy security framework: availability, affordability, efficiency, and stewardship. In doing so, it explores some of the governance challenges that arise in managing such a “mega-project.” The analysis also reveals tensions between national and regional energy security. It presents evidence that, under certain assumptions, the pursuit of enhanced security at the regional level may result in a net security loss for the DRC. Finally, the article provides suggestions for enhancing the decision-making process of those designing related national and regional energy strategies.

Study on Application of Honeypot in Campus Net Security

With the development of digital campus construction, the campus network size has been rapid growth, but there are also many network security problems. The honeypot technology is introduced and based on the development of net technology, combined with the campus network security problem, the honeypot technology applied to the campus network in Guangxi Agricultural-vocational Technique College is put forward, which can make the security of campus network unobstructed