The United Service Institution of India was founded in 1870 by a soldier scholar, Colonel (later Major General) Sir Charles MacGregor. The story of its growth is the story of the growth of the Indian Armed Forces. It was founded for ‘furtherance of interest and knowledge in the art, science and literature of the Defence Services.’
About the Monograph
| The monograph offers a comprehensive examination of the Indo-Pacific as the 21st century’s central geopolitical and geo-economic theatre, replacing the earlier Asia-Pacific framework. It traces the historical linkage between maritime power and great-power status, arguing that India’s rise as a leading global power is inseparable from the development of its maritime capacity. The study situates the Indo-Pacific’s emergence within the broader strategic trends—China’s assertive maritime expansion, competing regional visions, and intensifying major-power engagement. Drawing on classical geopolitical thinkers such as Mahan, Mackinder and Spykman, the monograph highlights the enduring strategic logic that makes dominance of the maritime rim indispensable for global influence. It surveys the evolution of the Indo-Pacific concept, contrasting India’s inclusive, rule-based vision with China’s “Two-Ocean Strategy”, which seeks to secure influence across the Pacific and Indian Oceans through military modernisation, economic coercion and infrastructural footprints such as the Belt and Road Initiative. The monograph underlines the region’s economic centrality—home to the world’s largest populations, fastest-growing markets, and critical sea-lanes—and assesses the challenges posed by rising militarisation, non-traditional threats, and the strategic flux introduced by the China–Russia axis. It outlines India’s long maritime heritage, current limitations in its marine economy, and the urgent need to scale shipbuilding, commercial shipping, blue-economy development and naval capability. Finally, it proposes a structured path to develop India’s Comprehensive Maritime Power, emphasising the expansion of the nation’s marine economy, revival of shipbuilding, enhancement of naval force structure, strengthening of regional partnerships, and sustained engagement through mechanisms like SAGAR, IPOI, QUAD and IOR frameworks. The monograph argues that the Indo-Pacific moment presents India with a unique historical opportunity to harness maritime power as the highway to achieving great-power status by 2047. . |