Using rigorous research and global networks to address the region’s most consequential policy issues
In the Spotlight
Zone Balancing: India and the Quad's New Strategic Logic
In a new article, Arzan Tarapore introduces the concept of 'zone balancing' to explain India's post-2020 strategic shift on China and the Quad's logic grounding its ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ framework.
Towards Meaningful Quad Cooperation on Intelligence
Sharing intelligence is a fraught proposition, but if Quad members can collaborate on new AI tools and processes, then they would build long-term capability with cascading effects, Arzan Tarapore writes.
New Essay Collection: Minilateral Deterrence in the Indo-Pacific
Leading scholars, including APARC's Oriana Skylar Mastro, examine the nexus between deterrence and minilateralism in Indo-Pacific security politics. Co-edited by Arzan Tarapore.
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The South Asia Initiative (SAI) at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) serves as the University’s hub for policy-relevant research on contemporary South Asia. APARC reestablished SAI in 2020 with the goal of building a unique center of excellence that addresses the region’s most pressing and consequential policy issues.
Our work follows multiple lines of effort: rigorous and high-impact research outputs, including both academic scholarship and general-interest publications; programming that brings world-class expertise to bear on high-interest topics; and collaboration spanning across the world’s key centers of South Asia analysis and key policymaking communities in the United States and across the Indo-Pacific region.
Our goal is to grow into a multidisciplinary research program that makes a globally unique contribution to research, education, and collaboration on South Asia — one that maximizes policy impact by addressing important but relatively understudied issues.
Our Research
The South Asia Initiative’s initial research focus is on regional security issues and the region’s most consequential state, India. We supplement that research focus with programming and collaboration on other countries and issues in South Asia, enlisting networks of experts across Stanford and other centers for South Asia studies.
Lead Researcher
Arzan Tarapore, PhD
South Asia Research Scholar
Arzan Tarapore is a Research Scholar at Shorenstein APARC, where he is charged with restarting APARC's research effort on South Asia. He is also a senior non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research. Tarapore’s research focuses on security issues in South Asia and the rapidly evolving strategic landscape of the wider Indo-Pacific. Prior to his scholarly career, he served for 13 years in the Australian Defence Department in various analytic, management, and liaison positions, including operational deployments and a diplomatic posting to the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Erin Mello, MA
Visiting Scholar, 2022 Fall Quarter
Mello serves as an analyst for US INDOPACOM and USAF/Hawaii Air National Guard. While at APARC, Mello's research focuses on building integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, examining barriers to U.S.-India security cooperation and how to overcome them.
Aidan Milliff, PhD
Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow on Contemporary Asia, 2022-23
Aidan’s research combines computational social science and qualitative tools to answer questions about the cognitive, emotional, and social forces that shape political violence, migration, post-violence politics, and the politics of South Asia.
India is an attractive strategic partner to the United States and a key player in the Indo-Pacific, but its defense policy remains understudied. We investigate how India approaches the use of force and prepares its military to manage security threats.
Chinese military expansion in the Indian Ocean region poses strategic risks to the United States and its allies and partners. We study these challenges and their implications for policymakers and military planners in Washington and other like-minded capitals.
The United States and its likeminded partners, particularly India — if four constraints are more realistically accounted for — and other members of the Quad, can more effectively mitigate the risks of Chinese military expansion by building “strategic leverage” along these four lines of effort in the Indian Ocean region.
Arzan Tarapore, PhD
Erin Mello, MA 
Aidan Milliff, PhD
