Collective Security

45. The above words reflect the true attitude of the world leaders in the present century. Over the last few decades the world order has really transformed towards cooperation in a big way and this has led to the emergence of the word ‘Cooperative Security’. The term often simply means that states will work together to solve common problems and is often used synonymously with collective security i.e. to mean simply that states work collectively together. However, collective security also often has a more specific meaning in the international relations literature, in which it is used to describe a kind of security system in which states agree to act together against one of the members of the system that takes aggressive actions against another.

46. Need. In the 21st century the world is taking a giant leap towards globalization & industrialization in the developing countries arena. This has led to the over dependency on oil and energy imports which has further strained the land trade routes. As a result SLOCs have become the lifelines of the developing nations. In addition, several trends in the international system have made ‘Cooperative Security’ increasingly important as the main mode to deal with threats posed by non-state actors. We have seen a corresponding increase in globalization and the realization of a ‘Global

Drawing upon the drivers and addressing the obstacles in order to develop cooperative maritime security requires strong regional security leadership and management capabilities in a largely incoherent and complex international context . In addition the China’s initiatives in maritime cooperation against piracy and India’s positive role in escorting ships off the Horn of Africa have been duly acknowledged in most strategic discourses. The growing rise of China and its extremist policies in some way or the other do create a decision dilemma in one’s mind whether ‘China is Playing a Double Game Policy’. The answer is possibly not, as any confrontation of any kind will take China back by at least 100 years, which it cannot afford. The growing energy dependence, emerging non-traditional threats, interests of the extra regional powers and the need for regional stability all point towards one conclusion that the two rising nations of the region should go in for ‘Cooperative Security’. This statement is well supplemented by analyzing in detail the ‘Geopolitics and Power Struggle including Economic Interests’, ‘Maritime Security Environment’ and ‘Strategic Objectives’ of both India and China in the previous