PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · South Asia: Regionalism, SAARC & BIMSTEC
Discuss the significance of “West Asia Quad” in the light of India’s “Look West’ policy.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
pooled comparative advantage: Emirati capital + location / Israeli technology / Indian scale – two concrete projects: $2bn food parks, 300 MW Gujarat hybrid — India as producer and supply- chain node, not buyer of energy and exporter of labour > political payoff: Washington outside the Indo-Pacific without alliance + de-hyphenation + alternative to Chinese economic presence -—> Saraswat, “transformational” — IMEC (Sept 2023) extends the same logic
Body flow
hard security excluded by design – momentum slowed after October 2023 — Vakil: Palestine question + Gulf rivalries weaken political cohesion — 2026 Iran war, Hormuz closure, Chabahar waiver lapse — exposure sits where the grouping does not reach
Counter-view
aah =R1 economic architecture gained, strategic architecture not yet routes R2 Look West now has a delivery mechanism, but its security test lies outside [2U2’s remit
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
