Preface

China and India are large, rapidly developing countries with the potential to emerge as superpowers in the twenty-first century. The two states share key similarities including large populations, nuclear weapons, rising economic and military power, troubled borders, internal security challenges, domestic inequalities, incomplete economic reforms, and uncertain ambitions. Despite the uncertainties they themselves face, the rise of China and India – in particular the growing relative power of China – has inspired alarm in the United States. Some American political leaders and strategists advocate sharply divergent policies toward China and India. China is viewed as a potential competitor more than a potential partner, whereas the reverse is true of India. Washington “hedges” against Beijing while it seeks to increase Indian power and enlist New Delhi as a partner in that hedging. Yet American choices may not be as simple as defining enemies and allies. Both China and India will present the United States with sustained challenges as well as opportunities in the coming years, and Washington will need nuanced, if distinct, approaches to each.

The purpose of this book is to create a framework for objective assessment of the strategic behavior of the world’s two most important rising powers. The book fills an important gap in the literature on rising Indian and Chinese power and American interests in Asia by presenting a side-by-side comparison of Chinese and Indian international strategic behavior in four areas: (1) strategic culture; (2) foreign policy and use of force; (3) military modernization (including developments in defense spending, doctrine, and force modernization); and (4) economic strategies (including international trade and energy competition). We do not examine the origins of U.S. policy toward India and China, nor do we evaluate the effectiveness of those policies. However, our analysis challenges key arguments that support a recent sharpening divergence in the U.S. approach toward the two countries.