India And The South Asian Strategic Triangle

This book traces the triangular strategic relationship of India, Pakistan and China over the second half of the twentieth century, and shows how two enmities – Sino-Indian and Indo-Pakistani – and one friendship – Sino-Pakistani – defined the distribution of power and the patterns of relationships in a major centre of gravity of international conflict and international change. The three powers are tied to each other and their actions reflect their view of strategic and cultural problems and geopolitics in a volatile area. The book considers internal debates within the three countries; zones of conflict, including northeast and northwest south Asia, the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean; and the impact of developments in nuclear weapons and missile technology. It examines the destructive consequences of China’s harsh methods in Tibet, of China’s encouragement of military rather than democratic regimes in Pakistan, and of China’s delay in dealing with the border disputes with India. Ashok Kapur shows how the Nehru-Chou rhetoric about "peaceful co-existence" affected the relationship, and how the dynamics of the relationship have changed significantly in recent years as a range of new factors - including India’s increasing closeness to the United States - have moved the relationship into a new phase.

While the strategic dynamics in the IOR are complex and involve many powers there is little doubt that the “strategic triangle” involving the US, China and India is one of the key traditional security issues facing the IOR. Given Sri Lanka’s geopolitically significant location in the IOR this strategic triangle is bound to have an impact on its national interests and security. The central questions raised by this volume are the following: What are the prospects of competition and cooperation within the strategic triangle? What structure or pattern will the triangular relations assume? How can stability be maintained in the triangular relationship in the interest of peace in the IOR? and What would be the impact of this strategic triangle on a small country such as Sri Lanka situated in a geopolitically significant location in the IOR? The dynamics of the US-China-India strategic triangle in the IOR will be complicated, containing elements of both competition and cooperation. The research contained in the substantive chapters of this volume present a multiplicity of views on the possible patterns that the strategic triangle can assume. Based on Harry Harding’s typology of the strategic triangle in international affairs, these include: one mediating the conflict between the other two; two-against-one; and all-working-together. The multiplicity of patterns that the strategic triangle could assume indicate that there is likely to be considerable fluctuation in its structure. What is important in maintaining stability is that the competition is not allowed to become unmanageable, and the fostering of cooperation based on common interests. The US-China-India strategic triangle poses Sri Lanka as a country situated in a geopolitically significant location in the IOR with both challenges and opportunities. The most fundamental challenge is posed by the tendency of each of these three major powers to subordinate Sri Lanka to their grand strategic objectives and interaction with each other. The fundamental opportunity presented to Sri Lanka by the strategic triangle is that of using its geopolitical importance to each of these three major powers by virtue of its location in the IOR to its own advantage in a way that best serves its national interests.

India had a bad introduction to the world of diplomacy and military strategy because her first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, lacked administrative, diplomatic and military experiences. His policies ignored major global trends which were based on geopolitical calculations rather than moral force. The distortions which Nehru created became a permanent feature of Congress Party’s strategic culture. The process of unwinding the Nehru legacy has been slow and retarded by the lack of defence consciousness among Indian ministers and civil servants. Indira Gandhi’s military victory in 1971 did not improve India’s position in the Asian balance because there were no limits to the capacity of China, Pakistan and the USA to act with impunity against Indian interests. Can the Modi government change these equations to India’s strategic advantage and to learn from the past? This can be done by ‘escalating and negotiating’ with hostile powers and by developing new partnerships in Asia.

This book examines from Sri Lankan perspectives the changing position of Sri Lanka in South Asia brought about by the internationalisation of ethnic conflict, and the increasing strategic importance to India of Sri Lanka. The major feature of the book is the analysis of the geo-strategic scenario in South Asia in relation to the new situation which has been created by the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement in July 1987. Various contributors examine the agreement in the context of the strategic parameters pertaining to the South Asian region and discuss the extent to which these parameters are themsleves influenced by great power rivlaries. Three contributors explore the specifically subcontinental and regional aspects of the strategic scenario; two of them deal with the extra-regional dimension; while one paper considers whether the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement has had the effect of placing Sri Lanka in the same position which Finland occupies in relation to the Soviet Union. The remaining essays discuss the present statutes and future prospects of the Agreement.

Taking a long view of the three-party relationship, and its future prospects In this Asian century, scholars, officials and journalists are increasingly focused on the fate of the rivalry between China and India. They see the U.S. relationships with the two Asian giants as now intertwined, after having followed separate paths during the Cold War. In Fateful Triangle, Tanvi Madan argues that China's influence on the U.S.-India relationship is neither a recent nor a momentary phenomenon. Drawing on documents from India and the United States, she shows that American and Indian perceptions of and policy toward China significantly shaped U.S.-India relations in three crucial decades, from 1949 to 1979. Fateful Triangle updates our understanding of the diplomatic history of U.S.-India relations, highlighting China's central role in it, reassesses the origins and practice of Indian foreign policy and nonalignment, and provides historical context for the interactions between the three countries. Madan's assessment of this formative period in the triangular relationship is of more than historic interest. A key question today is whether the United States and India can, or should develop ever-closer ties as a way of countering China's desire to be the dominant power in the broader Asian region. Fateful Triangle argues that history shows such a partnership is neither inevitable nor impossible. A desire to offset China brought the two countries closer together in the past, and could do so again. A look to history, however, also shows that shared perceptions of an external threat from China are necessary, but insufficient, to bring India and the United States into a close and sustained alignment: that requires agreement on the nature and urgency of the threat, as well as how to approach the threat strategically, economically, and ideologically. With its long view, Fateful Triangle offers insights for both present and future policymakers as they tackle a fateful, and evolving, triangle that has regional and global implications.

This balanced and deeply informed book provides a comprehensive account of China’s Asia policy since the Cold War. Lowell Dittmer traces the PRC’s policy toward its Asian neighbors in the context of the country’s move from a developing nation to a great power, capable of playing a role in world politics commensurate with its remarkable economic rise. The author considers China’s bilateral relations with Russia, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, and Australia. Each of these relationships is also viewed in terms of China’s rivalry with the United States, which has viewed China’s rise with admiration tinged with a certain foreboding. Thus, Dittmer employs a triangular analysis to understand Beijing’s attempt to expand in Asia while at the same time deterring Washington’s interference. Reframing the international relations of Asia in a thought-provoking and informed manner, this important book presents a panoramic view of the dynamics at work on all sides of China.

Seeks To Help A Through Understand Understanding Of China`S India Policy Through An Inquiry Into China`S South Asia Vision-Takes Note Of Improvement In Indo-China Relations And The Recent Pro-India Tilt In China`S South Asia Policy.