By: Syed Sulaiman Akhtar
Madhuchanda Ghosh, an alumna of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program and the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship, has spent her career examining the strategic currents affecting the Indo-Pacific. As an assistant professor of political science at Presidency University in Kolkata, Ghosh combines her expertise in international relations with a deep interest in Japan’s foreign policy and its growing role as a proactive middle power. Her research highlights how Japan’s engagement, minilateral partnerships like the Quad, and India’s evolving strategic posture are reshaping the regional order.
Ghosh participated in an IVLP on foreign policy in 2018 and received a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship in 2021-22, during which she was hosted at Harvard University Asia Center.
Reflecting on her journey, Ghosh traces her passion for global affairs back to high school, when she first became interested in understanding international relations and different cultures. A formative moment came in 2002, when she was selected by the Japanese Embassy to represent India at the South Asian Youth Forum in Japan. In Tokyo, she had the opportunity to meet Prince Akishino and his wife at the Imperial Palace. These early experiences, combined with the cultural exposure she had growing up—her father, Kishor Ghosh, traveled to Japan almost every year for sitar concerts—inspired her to learn Japanese and ultimately pursue doctoral research on India-Japan relations.
Excerpts from an interview with Ghosh.
You approach your work through a security studies lens. What unique insights does this perspective offer on Indo-Pacific geopolitics?
Looking at the Indo-Pacific through a security studies lens is essential for understanding the structural, strategic and normative factors driving competition and cooperation. This perspective asks why states seek to change the status quo and how others respond. It also explains how states assess threats—what indicators they use and how these perceptions shape their behavior.
In the Indo-Pacific, threats are geopolitical, geostrategic and geoeconomic. For example, China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean are linked to its dependence on sea lanes that carry about 80 percent of its energy imports. Controlling these routes would give China a major strategic advantage. Likewise, if India loses influence in the Indian Ocean Region—its strategic backyard—it risks losing its status as a resident power.
What do you see as the key security challenges in the Indo-Pacific?
The Indo-Pacific has a fluid and complex strategic environment that shapes state behavior and shifting power dynamics. China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean, through its Maritime Silk Road Initiative, reflects a new reality in the regional maritime space. The militarization in the South China Sea and territorial claims pose a challenge to freedom of navigation and the sovereignty of countries within that territory. The continuous expansion of China into the Indian Ocean Region through the Belt and Road Initiative raises speculations of India being encircled by China through strategic investments, understood as China’s String of Pearls strategy.
U.S.-India-Japan trilateral cooperation has gained importance at a time when the Indo-Pacific’s geopolitical and economic landscape is in flux and the region’s security infrastructure faces many challenges. The region also faces non-traditional security challenges, including piracy, illegal fishing, human trafficking and maritime terrorism.
How does your focus on Japan enhance your understanding of alliances, power dynamics and strategic shifts in the Indo-Pacific?
Japan’s foreign policy and its growing strategic role have become central to discussions about the region. Studying Japan’s renewed engagement with regional alliances and its strategic responses has significantly broadened my perspective. To understand evolving power dynamics and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific, analyzing Japan’s foreign policy is essential.
How did your participation in the IVLP expand your understanding of U.S. foreign policy and its approach to Indo-Pacific strategy?
Foreign policy doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it is often driven by domestic priorities and perspectives. The IVLP gave me valuable firsthand exposure to U.S. politics, society and culture, which are factors that significantly shape U.S. foreign policy.
Through interactions with American scholars at leading think tanks in Washington, D.C., and visits to institutions like The Ohio State University and the University of Denver, I gained deeper insights into how the United States approaches the Indo-Pacific. These engagements helped me better understand the strategic thinking behind U.S. policies in the region.
What did your 2022 Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship allow you to explore, and how has that experience informed your current research on regional security in the Indo-Pacific?
The 2022 Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship allowed me to complete field research in the United States. I conducted interviews with American foreign policy experts and security analysts, which became an important part of my study on U.S.-India-Japan strategic convergence in the Indian Ocean.
This fieldwork deepened my understanding of how these three countries are working together on regional security in the Indian Ocean, which has become a critical geopolitical and geoeconomic space. The data I gathered during this fellowship formed the basis for the book I published last year.
(This article is published as part of a special arrangement between Kashmir Images and SPAN Magazine, the publication of the U.S. Embassy in India (https://spanmag.state.gov/).
