(a) Critically examine the rise of People's Republic of China (PRC) as a great power and its implications on Asian Political…

(a) Rise of the People’s Republic of China and the Asian Political Order

A great power is a state whose economic, military and diplomatic capabilities let it shape the regional and global order. The transformation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from an agrarian state to a global power began with Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms, creating an economic engine that now underpins the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This economic foundation has financed extensive military modernization, particularly Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities and aircraft carrier battle groups. Consequently, Beijing has forcefully asserted territorial claims across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.

Critically, China’s early narrative of a "peaceful rise" has been eclipsed by assertive "wolf warrior diplomacy" and coercive economic practices, often characterized as debt-trap diplomacy - a label some researchers, such as Deborah Brautigam, dispute, though the Hambantota lease and Sri Lanka's 2022 default made it politically potent. China's ascent has fundamentally disrupted the Asian political order. The post-war US-led hub-and-spoke security architecture (the San Francisco system of bilateral alliances) is eroding, ASEAN centrality is fracturing under Beijing's bilateral leverage, and regional states have formed counter-balancing minilaterals such as the Quad and AUKUS. For India, China's unilateral revisions of the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), culminating in the Galwan clash of June 2020, have necessitated a strategic recalibration, even as the October 2024 patrolling agreement at Depsang and Demchok has eased the standoff. New Delhi has responded by deepening its Act East Policy, bolstering border infrastructure, and aligning with maritime partners. On balance, while China’s rise has brought regional economic integration, its assertive revisionism has destabilized the Asian security equilibrium, shifting the region from cooperative multipolarity to polarized contestation. Power-transition theory (Organski) and Graham Allison’s “Thucydides Trap” warn of conflict risk, yet economic interdependence, nuclear deterrence and Asian hedging (ASEAN, India’s strategic autonomy) temper outright bipolarity, as the India–China thaw after the leaders’ meeting at the SCO Tianjin summit (2025) shows.

(b) Conceptual Dimensions of Collective Security

Championed by Woodrow Wilson through the League of Nations and analysed by scholars such as Inis Claude (Swords into Plowshares, 1956), collective security operates on the principle that international peace is indivisible—an attack on one is an attack on all. It fundamentally differs from collective defense (such as NATO), which is an outward-facing alliance directed against a predefined external enemy. In contrast, collective security is an inward-looking, universal arrangement designed to maintain order among its own members.

Institutionalized under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter (Articles 39–51), collective security requires three conditions to succeed: universal membership, an unconditional commitment to renounce aggressive war, and an effective great power concert capable of deploying overwhelming collective force. Its dimensions are normative (the prohibition of force in Article 2(4)), institutional (Security Council primacy under Article 24 and enforcement under Articles 41–42) and, more recently, widened to human security and the Responsibility to Protect (2005 World Summit).

However, structural flaws have consistently undermined its implementation. The League of Nations collapsed due to great power defections, while the UN Security Council was largely paralyzed by veto powers during the Cold War, necessitating ad-hoc workarounds: action in Korea in 1950 was possible only because the Soviet delegate was boycotting the Council, and the Uniting for Peace resolution (November 1950) was then devised to let the General Assembly act when the Council is deadlocked. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict demonstrates how the permanent-member veto can neutralize Chapter VII enforcement. In Asia, where deep-seated geopolitical rivalries and disputed borders persist without a universal regional security structure, collective security remains impractical, leaving states to rely on traditional balance-of-power mechanisms and deterrence.

(c) Efficacy of Global Conventions to Combat International Terrorism

The global counter-terrorism framework rests on General Assembly instruments such as the 1994 Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism and the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (2006), binding Security Council mandates such as Resolution 1373 (2001), which created the Counter-Terrorism Committee, the 1267 sanctions regime, and some nineteen universal sectoral instruments, including the 1999 International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and the 2005 Nuclear Terrorism Convention. Functionally, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has demonstrated efficacy through its grey-listing mechanism, which compels states to rectify anti-money laundering and terror-financing deficits - Pakistan's time on the grey list (2018-2022) forced legislative and prosecutorial action against terror financiers.

Nevertheless, severe efficacy gaps persist. Foremost is the absence of a universally accepted definition of terrorism, allowing countries to exploit the "freedom fighter versus terrorist" dichotomy. Cross-border terrorism, such as the attacks on Mumbai (26/11, 2008) and Pathankot (2016) by Pakistan-based groups, often escapes multilateral sanction due to great-power geopolitical shielding: China repeatedly placed "technical holds" on listing Jaish-e-Mohammed's Masood Azhar under the 1267 regime until May 2019. Consequently, India’s proposed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), introduced in 1996 to establish an all-encompassing legal regime, remains stalled at the UN.

To offset these multilateral deficits, India actively leverages regional counter-terrorism frameworks, including the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS), BIMSTEC, and the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism (1987), while fortifying its domestic legal architecture through amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act.