Winds of Change: Geopolitics at the crossroads of South and Southeast Asia

Winds of Change: Geopolitics at the Crossroads of South and Southeast Asia, authored by Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, provides a comprehensive and timely analysis of the forces reshaping the Indo-Pacific. The book, published by World Scientific in 2026, draws upon the author’s extensive experience in foreign policy, national security, and strategic advisory roles, including his time as Founding Director General of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka and Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute.

Abeyagoonasekera currently serves as Executive Director of the South Asia Foresight Network and Technical Advisor to the International Monetary Fund, lending the work a depth of practitioner experience that enriches its theoretical engagement and regional observations. The book is structured around four central themes: the geopolitics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI); India–China regional diplomacy under Prime Minister Modi; broader geopolitical power rivalries involving the United States and its Indo-Pacific strategy; and Sri Lanka’s evolving domestic political landscape following the 2024 election of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

These themes are explored across a wide regional canvas encompassing Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, offering one of the most panoramic assessments of South and Southeast Asian geopolitics in recent years. Abeyagoonasekera’s work employs classical geopolitical theory to illuminate contemporary dynamics, using Nicholas J. Spykman’s Rimland thesis alongside modern international relations (IR) thinkers.

He argues that control over the maritime and littoral periphery of Eurasia, including the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Malacca Strait, remains central to 21st-century great-power competition. This theoretical framework provides a coherent lens for understanding why South and Southeast Asia have become a primary arena where the strategic ambitions of China, India, and the United States converge and collide.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Island Sri Lanka's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.