India's balancing policy against China's rise

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD student in International Relations

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan

Abstract

Balancing act is one of India's primary strategies in response to China's growing power. Delhi's confrontation with China's rise has compelled India to not only maximize its interests through alliances and expanded cooperation with the United States and its regional allies, but also to resolutely strengthen its domestic economic and military capabilities. As China progresses towards becoming a major power through economic and military modernization, India's concerns over China's actions to increase its power components have led to a strategic competition between the two countries. In this context, India, while redefining its national interests vis-à-vis China, has sought external balance by increasing economic, strategic, and defense cooperation with the United States and its allies. Simultaneously, it has pursued the enhancement of internal power resources, given its significant economic and military growth. This research aims to answer the question of how China's rise has influenced India's grand strategy? The hypothesis is that India has resorted to internal and external balancing initiatives in its grand strategy to counter China's growing power. Findings from this paper suggest that India, considering its economic, military, and strategic limitations compared to China, has adopted a soft balancing approach and deferred a harder balancing against China to the future. The research methodology employed in this study is explanatory-analytical."

Keywords

References

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