U.S.-Sino-India Relations: A Historical Perspective on Strategic Rivalry and Regional Order

Abstract

The changing dynamics of the relationship among the United States, China and India have emerged as one of the most important strategic triangles that frame our current understanding of international politics and the Asian regional order. The evolution of U.S.-Sino-India relations from the pre-1970s era to the present, based on political, economic, and strategic relationships among the three major powers, is examined in this research article. The study examines how the remnants of colonialism, ideological schisms, borders, enmities, shifts in Cold War alignments, and changing geopolitical realities have informed bilateral and trilateral relations over time. Low levels of U.S.-China hostility, India's balancing of China in the nonalignment realm until the late 1940s, and outright military confrontation during the Sino-Indian border wars of 1962 can largely explain important regional dynamics in South Asia throughout much of the Cold War. Beyond these developments, the article examines how the Sino-Soviet split, the U.S.-China rapprochement and India's strategic turn from both powers influenced its foreign policy behaviour in this period. The evolution of globalization, economic reforms, nuclear politics, and the rise of China and India as major powers shifted regional and global strategic calculations in the post-Cold War period. The 21st century study promotes the thinking that strategic competition is increasing between the U.S. and China while expanding U.S.-India strategic cooperation in defense, trade and Indo-Pacific Security. The relations between China and India, on the other hand, are characterized by a territorial and geopolitical rivalry in terms of regional influence and security concerns. The method of this research is a qualitative secondary sources of literary work such as books, journal articles, official documents, policy reports and scholarly analysis with historical approach. The study is realistic and balances powers in view of allies, strategic awareness and action for the three states. Finally, the book emphasizes the triangulated links between the US, China and India as the key to any future regional order in Asia and beyond.

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