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It would sound like a cliché to say that India and China share a long and disputed border, are neighbours by geography and are entangled with each other through a long historical and civilizational connection. History and geography are the two prominent catalysts which dictate the direction of this bilateral relationship, a relationship which is very pertinent today for peace and stability in Asia as well as the world. India and China are today strong economic and military powers, and the existing conflicts make the situation highly tense. These are the facts which are known and often repeated.

Bhasin’s much celebrated book Nehru, Tibet and China is an exceptionally enlightening volume because it draws its methodology from basic rules of historiography. Among the numerous books available on the subject over the years and the attention it has garnered recently after the latest clash in Galwan, it is no less than a tremendous feat, that yet another piece has been attempted that not only places the historicity of the context, genesis of the dispute and furnishes a rather honest, at times, stark portrayal of the failure of Nehru’s China policy without the commonplace bitterness from Nehru’s detractors.

It goes without saying that China is India’s most important neighbour and the India-China bilateral relations is the most consequential diplomatic engagement for India in the 21st century. Despite greater attention being paid to China in India recently, there is still not enough research and writing that would stand the test of the time. However, the gap is getting filled with a lot of quality work that has been published recently. Vijay Gokhale, who retired as India’s Foreign Secretary and has had a long engagement with China in various capacities over his diplomatic career, has written the work under review, The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India.

The rise of a state in international politics is measured by its hard power, soft power, and the effectiveness of its intelligence services. It is surprising that the discussions on the rise of China in the 21st century have often been centered on its hard and soft powers, but barely on the Chinese intelligence mechanisms. The CIA of the United States, KGB of Russia, MI6 of Britain, Mossad of Israel, DGSE of France, Naicho of Japan, and even MJIB of Taiwan, as well as R&AW of India, are well-known names in the world of spying and espionage.

Maroof Raza’s book Contested Lands: India, China and the Boundary Dispute was published in 2021, while the LAC between India and China in Eastern Ladakh was being actively contested. The author has done a diligent job of deep research and logical concatenation of the history of the contest. The subject has already been extremely well covered by many luminaries like Alistair Lamb, Neville Maxwell, Claude Arpi, RS Kalha and Shiv Kunal Verma, to name a few.

The history of West Asia is littered with violent conflicts—interstate wars, civil wars, insurgencies, revolutions, coups, invasions by foreign powers, and ethnic and sectarian strife. After the 1967 war between Israel and a group of Arab nations led by Egypt, peace in the ‘Middle East’ has been elusive. The events in the region constantly seek global attention for a variety of reasons. Divided into eight chapters the book under review seeks to piece together diverse matters into a coherent narrative that helps to make sense of the dynamics of the region—political, religious, military, socio-economic and cultural—that have shaped contemporary alignments and divisions, thus making the region unstable and volatile.