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India Balances China
Author(s) -
Malik Mohan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/j.1943-0787.2012.01360.x
Subject(s) - china , competition (biology) , east asia , political science , power (physics) , balance (ability) , development economics , economy , geography , political economy , economics , law , medicine , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , physical medicine and rehabilitation , biology
This article argues that classical realism is alive and well in Asia. China, India, and other states are all seeking to establish a balance‐of‐power favorable to their own interests. Economic engagement and military balancing remain dual components of China's and India's policy toward each other. Asymmetric growth in the Chinese and Indian economies has had the effect of intensifying their power competition. The biggest cause of Sino‐Indian balancing and counterbalancing is that both countries aspire to the same things at the same time on the same (contested) continental landmass and its adjoining waters. India's evolving Asia policy reflects the desire to build an arc of strategic partnerships with China's key neighbors in Southeast Asia and further east along the Asia‐Pacific rim, and with the United States, to help neutralize the continuing Chinese military assistance and activity around India, and to develop counter‐leverages of its own to keep China sober.