While India has achieved much in obtaining a higher global status, its quest of great power status remains unfinished.

The balance of power in the Asia Pacific is undeniably shifting as a result of the growing power and influence of China, the rise of other middle powers, and the prospect of Western retrenchment.

Countering traditional notions of balance-of-power theory, smaller states have not joined together militarily to oppose the United States' rising power at the end of the Cold War, Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, or Russian offensives along its Western border.

South Asia faces an array of security challenges. The ongoing U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the continuing violence in Pakistan, and the region’s intense militarization are creating a heightened sense of instability and unease among South Asian states.