ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether the patterns of amity and enmity linking India to the Persian Gulf have shifted since Narendra Modi took over as Indian prime minister in 2014. Empirically, this has been a significant period for India-Gulf relations. Former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and reimposed sanctions on Iran in 2018. US President Joe Biden has been unable to reinstate the JCPOA after coming to power in January 2021. Meanwhile, Iran and China signed a 25-year cooperation agreement in March 2021. Finally, India-Gulf relations suffered a setback in June 2022 as Gulf states reacted to disparaging remarks about the Prophet Muhammad made by two politicians from Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Theoretically, this area of inquiry is grounded in Regional Security Complex Theory and its ideas about the emergence of a supercomplex when a great power projects its “power into adjacent regions.” If interregional dynamics supersede dynamics within a Regional Security Complex (RSC), this would mean that the two adjacent RSCs are merging to form a single RSC.
