The Big Picture
K.P. Fabian
China's Nightmare, America's Dream: India by William H. Avery Amaryllis, New Delhi, 2012, 244 pp., 595
September 2012, volume 36, No 9

The author is a strategic consultant to companies doing international business. He was in the US Foreign Service for some years and has worked in US missions in India and Sri Lanka. When India carried out nuclear tests in 1998, Avery was in the US Consulate General in Chennai.

The most striking quality of the book is that it looks at the big picture. The basic thesis of the book can be easily summed up: US and India should become close allies to address the challenges of the 21st century. US-UK alliance shaped the 20th century. UK is losing steam; in any case, the geopolitics now is such that a country with a small population can no longer play an important global role. The US is in need of an ally as it confronts China, the rising power. The US needs India to take on China and is keen to have such an alliance with India; but India has yet to see clearly its role in geopolitics.

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