Great Power Rivalry in Indo Pacific: Implications for Pakistan

Abstract

The term of Indo Pacific delineates a conceptual evolution in the US strategic community to contain and encircle China by countering it in the area of its influence. The underlined policy priority is to counter Belt and Road Initiative to contain China. While China’s strict adherence to the previous geographical connotation of Asia Pacific establishes that it sticks to its policy of leading world by economic interdependence approach in Asia. This great power competition in the Indo Pacific region has wide ranging strategic and economic implications for Pakistan. This paper aims to discern into the factors which are making the strategic environment tensed thinning out the options for Pakistan. The two basic questions which this study addresses are: a. How does conceptual shift from Asia Pacific to Indo Pacific transform the strategic environment of this region? b. Why is this transformation so significant for Pakistan’s geostrategic interests?