UGC NET/JRF EXAM, INTERNATIONAL & AREA STUDIES, June-2021 PAPER-II)

Both China and the US has realized the growing importance of the Indo-Pacific region in the 21st century.

President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative (BRI)- that included both land and maritime linkages-was essentially intended to gain greater dominance over Eurasia in general and the Indo-Pacific in particular.

In a hard-hitting speech against the West, delivered in Feburary 2013 and released to the public six years later, Xi Jinping came down heavily against what he perceived as America's 'containment policy' against China in the region.

The BRI was conceived as an antidote to America's intended re-domination of the region. Source: India Foundation Journal, JanuaryFebruary 2021, Р-7.

When did Xi Jinping give a hard-hitting speech against the West criticising America's containment policy against China?

(a) Land Linkages
(b) Maritime Linkages
(c) Air Linkages

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Assertion (A): Belt and Road initiative was the brain child of Xi Jinping
Reason (R): BRI intended to gain greater dominance over Eurasia

In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Statement I: BRI intended to gain greater dominance over Indo-Pacific
Statement II: BRI was conceived as an antidote to America's intended re-domination in Indo-Pacific In the light of the above statements,

choose the correct answer from the options given below:

When the Cold war ended in the late 1980s many analysts thought that NATO's days are numbered. With the Soviet Union unable to maintain its control over Eastern Europe, the communist regimes in that region fell, and the Warsaw pact dissolved.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in December 1991, it seemed plausible that the NATO alliance would crumble as well NATO's obituaries turned out to be premature.

The United States did reduce its troop presence in Europe, but 62,000 US military personnel remain stationed there today. Rather than withering away, NATO expanded eastward, adding 13 states that had been allies or republics of the former Soviet Union.

The alliance expanded its mission. In the 1990s, NATO intervened with air strikes in the wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavianot because a NATO member had been attaked, but to address the humanitarian crises those wars created.

Its reach extended further after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, when the alliance invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty declaring that the entire alliance had been attacked.

NATO subsequently played an important role in efforts to stabilize Afghanistan after the US invasion in 2011. In March 2011, NATO initiated a military campaign against Libya in a response to that regime's violent crack down against domestic opponents.

Read the following statements:

(a) Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was invoked after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack
(b) In order to stabilize Afghanistan after US invasion in 2001, NATO played an important role
(c) NATO, in March 2011, did not initiate military Campaign against Libya

Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

Statement I: NATO intervened with air strikes in the war that accompanied the break up of Yugoslavia
Statement II: NATO intervened to address the humanitarian crises those wars created.

In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below:

(a) After Soviet Union disintegration in 1991, it was assumed that NATO alliance would have no existence
(b) NATO operations in the former Yogoslavia and Libya showed that the alliance can act on common commitment
(c) NATO has been transformed from a defensive alliance to collective security organisations

Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below: