The title of this book may raise a question in the reader's mind — why security in India and Southeast Asia? For all the challenges they face, they appear strong and resilient. How should security between India and Southeast Asia be defined or understood? Security should encompass both traditional as well as non-traditional security. It should thus be comprehensive security. The latter would refer to the overall state of relationship in which there is mutual trust and confidence with no apprehension or fear. Fortunately, in their long association, the two had no history of territorial ambitions or wars. In recent times, they might have had little by way of security dialogues or formal security cooperation. In fact, in the Cold War days the two seldom looked at a number of questions of war and peace through a common prism. And yet, close interaction on security issues between India and Southeast Asia at the present time appears imperative even as the politico-security order in the Asia-Pacific region has undergone a major shift and new sets of norms and parameters are evolving. Extraordinary geostrategic changes have occurred in the past decade or so. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and emergence of the United States as the sole superpower and the rise of China as a significant military and economic power, the geopolitical realities of the region have greatly altered. India has gradually reoriented itself to this transformation. For ASEAN, too, consolidation after the addition of four new members and the Asian financial crisis has been a challenging situation.

SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: A GEOPOLITICAL CONTINUUM

Seemingly, India's and ASEAN's priorities and areas of security concern may appear different and their policy approaches to deal with them may also vary. Though geographically proximate, the two have dissimilarities with regard to ethnic and demographic composition, experiences of nation-building or political governance and constitutional structures. Moreover, “geographic propinquity alone does not determine geopolitical impact. Two regions pursuing a policy of self-reliance and isolation from the rest of the world and from each other are unlikely to have political impact on one another.” Yet, there is enough historical evidence to show that European colonialism cast its sway without drawing any distinction between South or Southeast Asia.