India and South Asia in the world: on the embeddedness of regions in the international system and its consequences for regional powers

Abstract

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The regional powers’ research programme in international relations: a critical assessment

“…These observations started to put into question whether the proposed concepts of ‘empire’, ‘hegemony’ or even ‘leadership’ were the right ones to fully grasp the actual behaviour of regional powers. In a later publication, Prys ( 2013 , p. 271) suggested that our inventory of conceptual and theoretical tools might be unsuitable to analyse the varieties of regional power behaviour that we encounter in the real world. In a similar vein, Destradi ( 2017 , p. 316) observed that no suitable concept can be found in the analytical toolbox of IR to ‘make sense of the widespread phenomenon of powerful or rising states that pursue inconsistent, confusing courses of action and do not bring to bear their power resources to coherently manage international crises that potentially affect them’.…”

“…Or are the expectations derived from global-level theories offering inaccurate standards and benchmarks against which to assess the behaviour of regional powers? (Prys, 2013 , p. 274). And if this is the case, which alternative analytical tools can account for these regularities?…”

“…According to this perspective, the global level not only impacts upon regions but also constitutes an independent arena within which regional actors can operate and, in doing so, sometimes effectively ‘exit’ from their regions. This introduces the ‘inside-out’ dimension of the embeddedness of regions in the global system (Prys 2013 ). In an attempt to give an answer to the puzzling ‘expectations-achievement gap’ of regional powers referred above, Prys (ibid.)…”

Dynamics of Rivalry between Geographically Contiguous Regional Powers: The Case of Sino‐Indian Competition

“…Regional powers utilize their asymmetric advantage in the region to lead an integrated approach aimed at providing “public goods” (Destradi, , p. 907). The public goods could materialize in the form of stability and peace in the area of influence of the regional power (Prys, , p. 270). Thus, the regional power is expected to direct the overall stability of the region by providing for the security needs of the states within that particular region.…”

“…Miriam Prys () presents a similar classification of different roles regional powers can play in their respective regional political contexts. She categorizes regional powers in three ways: Dominant Regional Powers: A regional power that promotes its own private goods provision and dominates over public goods provision of the region and uses force if need be. Regional Hegemons: A regional power which promotes regional stability and provides some common goods for the region without usage of force. Detached Regional Powers: A regional power that focuses on international roles rather than local ones. …”