India-China-US: A Romantic Triangle?
Editorial
January 2005, volume 29, No 1

American scholarship and policy has traditionally treated India and China as falling within two different geopolitical contexts. In the past decade, US scholarship on China has dealt predominantly with the challenges posed to the US by a rapidly growing Chinese economy and military capability. The main drivers of this US-China relationship were trade, Taiwan, Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian security issues. On the other hand, scholarship on India has tended to focus on India’s economic potential, its nuclear tests and bilateral relations driven by South Asian geopolitics and nuclear nonproliferation. India-China relations have rarely been a factor in analysing or formulating the overall American policy towards Asia. Changing regional and global balance of power after September 11 and the need to resituate India and China in the regional and global power matrix prompts this study. The study recognizes that the post 9/11 world offers opportunities for newer forms of cooperation between India and China and presents challenges arising mainly from concerns about US unilateralism.

Continue reading this review