Biden and Beyond: The United States Rethinks South Asia captures the significant transitions unfolding in the US policy towards South Asia. Developed across two administrations, led by Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the US' South Asia policy has moved away from more than four decades of focus on Afghanistan, especially after the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, to now viewing the region through the Indo-Pacific prism. The military withdrawal has also undermined the US' long-standing strategic partnership with Pakistan that was viewed as the frontline state in dealing with the turmoil in Afghanistan. This has substantially altered Washington's geopolitical perspective of the South Asian subcontinent. Furthermore, the rising concerns in Washington on China have seen the formulation of an Indo-Pacific strategy that has elevated India to the top of US strategic priorities. The deepening tensions between China and the US, as well as between Beijing and Delhi, have set the stage for a new strategic partnership between Washington and Delhi. Amidst Washington's competition with Beijing, the Himalayan region girding the underbelly of China has acquired an importance of its own. The maritime perspective of the US has also raised the value of the subcontinent's waters and provided an incentive for Washington to turn new attention to the strategic islands of the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Taken together, these factors presage a transformation in the interaction between the US and the South Asian subcontinent in the coming years. This book, hence, brings into the conversation these recent changes and sheds new light on contemporary US-South Asia relations.
Professor C Raja Mohan is a Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS). He was the Director of ISAS, from May 2018 to December 2021. He was also Professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Professor Mohan is one of India's leading commentators on India's foreign policy. He has been associated with a number of think tanks in New Delhi, including the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses and the Centre for Policy Research and the Observer Research Foundation. He was also the founding director of Carnegie India, New Delhi ― the sixth international centre of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC. He was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in International Affairs at the United States Library of Congress, Washington DC, from 2009 to 2010. He served on India's National Security Advisory Board. He has also led the Indian Chapter of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs from 1999 to 2006.
He writes a regular column for the Indian Express and was previously the Strategic Affairs Editor for The Hindu, Chennai. He is on the editorial boards of a number of Indian and international journals on world politics.
Professor Mohan holds a Master's degree in nuclear physics and a PhD in international relations. Among his recent books is Samudra Manthan: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific (2013) and Modi's World: Expanding India's Sphere of Influence (2015).
Mr Hernaikh Singh is Deputy Director at the Institute of South Asian Studies. He has more than 30 years of experience in Singapore's government and non-government organisations, the business sector and the academic fraternity. He has managed a diverse range of portfolios, including international relations; policy and business development; and administrative, editorial and publication management. He also has significant experience in training and research development.
Mr Singh has been publishing regularly. His co-edited books, ASEAN and India: The Way Forward (Singapore: World Scientific, 2022), and India On Our Minds (Singapore: World Scientific, 2020) were respectively launched by Singapore's Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. His most recent co-edited book is Coping with China-India Rivalry: South Asian Dilemmas (Singapore: World Scientific, 2023).
Mr Singh holds a Master of Arts (Southeast Asian Studies) degree from NUS. For his outstanding academic achievements, he was awarded the Dr Benjamin Batson Gold Medal. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the same university.
