EVENTS

The India-Japan relationship has developed from a limited bilateral engagement into a Special Strategic and Global Partnership spanning defence, maritime security, infrastructure, economic security, critical technologies, energy resilience and regional cooperation. Yet this growing convergence has not produced a formal alliance. This presentation examines this apparent paradox through the theoretical lens of neoclassical realism, which argues that systemic pressures are an important, but insufficient explanation of foreign-policy outcomes. It contends that the changing distribution of power, shared concerns about China and the changing Indo-Pacific order, maritime insecurity, economic coercion and technological dependence have created strong incentives for India and Japan to cooperate. However, while systemic pressure creates the incentive for cooperation, its scope is ultimately shaped by external pressures that are interpreted and translated through domestic variables. Additionally, leadership perceptions, strategic culture, state capacity, institutional arrangements and economic priorities have also shaped both the expansion and the limits of the partnership. India’s preference for strategic autonomy and Japan’s alliance-based security posture create different pathways for responding to broadly shared regional challenges. These differences do not prevent cooperation, but influence its pace, instruments and political boundaries. The presentation argues that India-Japan relations are best understood neither as an inevitable alliance nor as a merely transactional partnership. They represent a calibrated alignment in which strategic convergence is real, but its institutional form remains conditioned by domestic constraints and differing conceptions of national interest.

Speaker

Anudeep Gujjeti is an Assistant Professor at the Symbiosis Law School, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University). He completed his PhD in Political Science from University of Hyderabad. He worked as an Assistant Professor at the Center of Excellence for Geopolitics and International Studies, REVA University, Bengaluru. Anudeep has also worked as a Research Associate and Consultant at the Council for Social Development (CSD)-Hyderabad. He has convened ICSSR-sponsored national seminars, including “Status of Health Indicators in Telangana Since 2014” and “Listening to Freedom Fighters”. His research interests include Indian and Japanese Foreign Policy, Indian Foreign Policy, Indo-Japan Relations, the Indo-Pacific, International Relations Theory, Digital Diplomacy, World Order, and Non-Traditional Security. Anudeep’s articles have been published in reputed outlets like India’s World, The Diplomat, The Hindu Businessline, Telangana Today, Indian Express, and ORCA-India.

Chair

Srabani Roy Choudhury is a distinguished Professor at the Japanese Division, Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, with over three decades of professional and academic engagement with Japan. She was awarded the “Commendation for Promotion of Japanese Studies” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo, Japan in 2024. She is also a fellow of Japan Foundation Indo-Pacific Fellowship (2024-25). She has been a visiting scholar at leading institutions such as Policy Research Institute, Kobe University, Nagoya University, Keio University, and University of Navarra. She has to her credit six edited volumes. They are Japan- SAARC Partnership: A Way Ahead (2014), India-Japan Relations @70: Building Beyond the Bilateral (Co-edited) ( 2022), The Indo-Pacific Theatre: Strategic Visions and Frameworks (2023), Japan and its Partners in the Indo-Pacific: Engagements and Alignment (2023), India Japan Partnership: Abe the Game Changer (2024), India Japan and Beyond (Co-edited) (2024).

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