Manjeet Pardesi

Qualifications

BEng, MSc (NTU, Singapore)
PhD (Indiana-Bloomington, US)

Profile

Manjeet joined VUW in June 2013 after completing his PhD in Political Science from Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB). He has an MSc in Strategic Studies from the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS, now the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. After completing his MSc, he worked as an Associate Research Fellow at IDSS where he focused on the institute's projects on the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and India.

Research interests

Manjeet's research interests include International Relations in World History, Rivalries, Great Power Politics, Asian Security, and Indian Foreign/Security Policy.

Manjeet's dissertation work focused on the initiation of strategic rivalries and their escalation to war. He used image theory to explain rivalry initiation, and prospect theory to explain crisis escalation (or non-escalation) to war. His substantive cases included the China-India rivalry, the US-China rivalry, and the US-Japan rivalry (before 1945).

Current research projects

I am currently working on revising my doctoral dissertation to convert it into a book manuscript.

In addition to this, I am also working on the following research papers:

IR in World History:

‘Systems Stasis and Systems Change: A Comparison of Ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese international systems’

I am in the early stages of a book project with Amitav Acharya that compares the Hellenization and Romanization of the Mediterranean with the Sinicization and Indianization of Southeast Asia

Asian Security

Explaining the American response to the rise of China and India – I am in the process of developing a theoretical model to explain why the system leader pursues competitive strategies vis-à-vis some rising powers while pursuing cooperative strategies towards others

'The East Asian Origin of the US-India Cold War Strategic Estrangement'. (Have collected archival material from the Truman and Eisenhower Libraries in the United States and the Nehru Memorial Museum Library in India)

'Strategic Asia/The Indo-Pacific,' (with William R. Thompson, Thomas Volgy, and J. Patrick Rhamey, Jr.) (This paper is an historical overview – over the past 200 years – of a larger “strategic Asia” that combines the contemporary regions known as South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia. The aim of the paper is to explain how regions emerge in world politics).

India

'Violent Punjab, Quiescent Bengal, and the Partition of India,' (with Sumit Ganguly). (This paper explains why the Punjab bore the brunt of mass violence and migration that accompanied the partition of India even as the province of Bengal was partitioned too).

Select publications

Journal articles (and Peer-Reviewed Articles)

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Modi: From ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’ – Semantic or Substantive Change,” International Studies Perspective (accepted for publication, forthcoming).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The Initiation of the Sino-Indian Rivalry,” Asian Security (forthcoming); available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14799855.2018.1471060

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Mughal Hegemony and the Emergence of South Asia as a ‘Region’ for Regional Order-Building,” European Journal of International Relations (forthcoming); available online at https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066118761537

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Region, System, and Order – The Mughal Empire in Islamicate Asia,” Security Studies Volume 26, Issue 2 (2017): 249-278.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Image Theory and the Initiation of Strategic Rivalries,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics edited by William R. Thompson (March 2017).; Available online: http://politics.oxfordre.com (DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.318).

Robert Ayson and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Asia’s Diplomacy of Violence: China-US Coercion and Regional Order,” Survival Volume 59, Issue 2 (2017): 85-124.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “American Global Primacy and the Rise of India,” AsiaPacific Issues No. 129 (March 2017). Available: http://www.eastwestcenter.org/node/36061

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “China’s Nuclear Forces and their Significance to India,” Nonproliferation Review Volume 21, Number 3/4 (2014): 337-354. (Published in September 2015).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Is India a Great Power: Understanding Great Power Status in Contemporary International Relations,” Asian Security Volume 11, Issue 1 (2015): 1-30. (Published as the lead article of the issue).

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Can China and India Rise Peacefully?,” Orbis Volume 56, Issue 3 (Summer 2012): 470-485

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India and Pakistan: The Origins of Their Different Politico-Military Trajectories,” India Review Volume 9, Issue 1 (January 2010): 38-67.

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Explaining Sixty Years of India’s Foreign Policy,” India Review Volume 8, Issue 1 (January 2009): 4-19.

Manjeet S. Pardesi and Jennifer L. Oetken, “Secularism, Democracy, and Hindu Nationalism in India,” Asian Security Volume 4, Number 1 (January-April 2008): 23-40.

Manjeet S. Pardesi and Ron Matthews, “India’s Tortuous Road to Defence-Industrial Self-Reliance,” Defense & Security Analysis Volume 23, Number 4 (December 2007): 419-438.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Review Essay: Understanding the Rise of India,” India Review Volume 6, Number 3 (July-September 2007): 209-231.

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India Rising: What is New Delhi to Do?,” World Policy Journal Volume XXIV, Number 1 (Spring 2007): 9-18.

Manjeet S. Pardesi and Sumit Ganguly, “The Rise of India and the India-Pakistan Conflict,” The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs Volume 31, Number 1 (Winter 2007): 131-145.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles / Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles: Likely Missions and Challenges for the Policy-Relevant Future”, Air & Space Power Journal (of the United States Air Force) Volume XIX, No. 3 (Fall 2005): 45-54.

Available: http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj05/fal05/pardesi.html

The ASPJ article was republished in USI Digest (The United Service Institution of India), Volume VIII, Number 15 (September 2005-February 2006): 66-88.
The ASPJ article was translated into Chinese and republished in the May 2006 issue of the Taiwanese journal National Defense Digest. This is a monthly journal for military related personnel published by the History and Translation Division, Ministry of National Defense, Taiwan, Republic of China.
This paper was republished in February 2006 in Strategic Analysis, a compilation of papers from the Fisher Institute of Air and Space Strategic Studies (Founded by the Israeli Air Force Association), Herzlia, Israel.

Edited volumes

Sumit Ganguly, Nicolas Blarel, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, editors, The Oxford Handbook of India’s National Security (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, editors, India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014).

Book chapters

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India’s Conventional Military Strategy,” in Sumit Ganguly, Nicolas Blarel, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, eds., The Oxford Handbook of India’s National Security (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2018).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “China and India: The Evolution of a Compound Rivalry,” in Sumit Ganguly, Andrew Scobell, and Joseph Chinyong Liow, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies 2^nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2018).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Evolution of India-Japan Ties: Prospects and Limitations,” in Rajesh Basrur and Sumitha Kutty, eds., India and Japan: Assessing the Strategic Partnership (Singapore: Palgrave, 2018).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Order in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region: Indian Hegemony or Indian Primacy,” in Alan Chong, ed., International Security in the Asia-Pacific: Transcending ASEAN Towards Transitional Polycentrism (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Modi’s China Policy – Change or Continuity?,” in Sinderpal Singh, ed., Modi and the World: (Re)Constructing of Indian Foreign Policy (Singapore: World Scientific, 2017): 3-24.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The US-China-India Strategic Triangle,” in Bo Zhiyue, ed., China-US Relations in Global Perspective (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2016): 240-248.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Is India a South Asian or an Asian Power?,” in Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Routledge Handbook on Contemporary India (London: Routledge, 2016), 135-145.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India’s China Policy,” in Sumit Ganguly, ed., India’s Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), 167-194.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India’s Relations with Japan and South Korea,” in Sumit Ganguly, ed., India’s Foreign Policy (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016), 303-325.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “China-India: Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh Plateaus,” in Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, ed., Border Disputes: A Global Encyclopedia, Volume 2 – Positional Disputes (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2015), 539-549.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The Indian Navy’s Doctrinal Evolution,” in Harsh Pant, ed., Handbook of Indian Defence Policy (New Delhi: Routledge, 2015), 206-218.

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Foreign Policy Analysis in India,” in Valerie Hudson and Klaus Brummer, eds., FPA Outside North America (Lynne Rienner, 2015), 57-76.

Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Introduction,” in Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, editors, India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 1-21.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The Indo-US Defense Relationship: Prospects and Limitations,” in Rajesh Basrur, Ajaya Kumar Das, and Manjeet S. Pardesi, editors, India’s Military Modernization: Challenges and Prospects (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 230-258.

Nicolas Blarel and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India,” in Richard Sobel, Peter Furia, and Bethany Barratt, eds., Public Opinion and International Intervention: Lessons from the Iraq War (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2012), 187-199.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India in Asia: India’s Relations with Southeast Asia and China, 1962-1991,” in Andreas Hilger and Corinna Unger, eds., India in the World: National and Transnational Perspectives, 1947-1991 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2012), 15-34.

Manjeet S. Pardesi and Sumit Ganguly, “The Indian Elephant,” in Donette Murray and David Brown, eds., Multipolarity in the 21^st Century: A New World Order (London: Routledge, 2012), 131-160.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Instability in Tibet and the Sino-Indian Strategic Rivalry: Do Domestic Politics Matter?,” in Sumit Ganguly and William R. Thompson, eds., Asian Rivalries: Conflict, Escalation, and Limitations on Two-level Games (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011), 79-117.

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Politico-Economic and Radical Islamic Challenges to Democracy in Asia,” in Ashley J Tellis, Andrew Marble, and Travis Tanner, eds., Strategic Asia 2010-11: Asia’s Rising Power and America’s Continued Purpose (Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research, 2010), 278-302.

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “South Asia and Foreign Policy,” in Robert A. Denemark, eds., The International Studies Encyclopedia, Volume X (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 6497-6514.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Southeast Asia in Indian Foreign Policy: Positioning India as a Major Power in Asia,” in Sumit Ganguly, ed., India’s Foreign Policy: Retrospect and Prospect (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), 106-131.

Manjeet S. Pardesi and Sumit Ganguly, “India and Energy Security: A Foreign Policy Priority,” in Harsh Pant, ed., Indian Foreign Policy in a Unipolar World (New Delhi: Routledge, 2009), 99-127.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Missions, Challenges, and Implications for Small and Medium Powers,” in Bernard Loo, ed., Military Transformation and Strategy: Revolutions in Military Affairs and Small States (London: Routledge, 2009), 101-113.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Nuclear Optimism and the 1990 India-Pakistan Crisis,” in Sumit Ganguly and S Paul Kapur, eds., Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia: Crisis behavior and the Bomb (New York: Routledge, 2009), 59-75.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The Battle for the Soul of Pakistan at Islamabad’s Red Mosque,” in C Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly, eds., Treading on Hallowed Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations in Sacred Spaces (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 88-116.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “The India-China Border,” in Clinton Fernandes, ed., Hot Spot: Asia and Oceania (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008), 67-89.

Miscellaneous

Sumit Ganguly and Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Prospects for India’s Energy and Geopolitical Roles in the Middle East,” in The New Energy Silk Road: The Growing Asia-Middle East Nexus (NBR Conference Report, The National Bureau of Asian Research, October 2009), 29-39. Available: http://www.nbr.org/downloads/pdfs/eta/ES_Conf09_PR.pdf

Reprinted under the same title in Mikkal E. Herberg, Energy Security and the Asia-Pacific (Seattle: The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2014), 254-267.

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “Counterterrorism Cooperation with the United States and Japan: An Indian Perspective,” in Bridging Strategic Asia (Complete Report): The United States, Japan, and India, edited by Derek Mitchell (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2009), 255-268. Available: http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/090201_complete_report.pdf

Manjeet S. Pardesi et. al., Energy and Security: The Geopolitics of Energy in the Asia-Pacific, POLICY PAPER of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Singapore, October 2006. Available: http://www.rsis.edu.sg/publications/policy_papers/E%20&%20S%20book.pdf

Manjeet S. Pardesi, “India - The History of Security Concepts and Ideas,” in Desmond Ball, Anthony Miller, and Nicholas Farrelly, eds., Languages of Security in the Asia Pacific. Available: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/languagesofsecurity/