The Importance of Shinzo Abe: India, Japan and the Indo-Pacific

by Sanjaya Baru

English 284 pages 1 edition

Shinzo Abe, who was tragically assassinated on 8 July 2022, is widely regarded as the most influential Prime Minister of post-war Japan. Not only was he Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister, but he is also credited with giving a new direction to the country’s economic, foreign and national-security policies. Abe left an indelible imprint on Japan-India relations, establishing close ties with two successive Indian Prime Ministers and signing up to a new global and strategic partnership between Asia’s major democracies. He enabled a radical shift in Asian security architecture and India’s external security environment by promoting the concept of the Indo-Pacific. Building on the ‘Confluence of the Two Seas’ in his historic address to the Indian Parliament in August 2007, Abe became the architect of the Quadrilateral Security Initiative, known as the Quad. The Importance of Shinzo Abe brings together experts from diverse backgrounds to evaluate Abe’s unparalleled contribution to global security and the future of Asia and Japan-India relations. Insightful and absorbing, these definitive essays celebrate the statesman as much as the geopolitical strategist.