Understanding China and India: Security Implications for the United States and the World

by Rollie Lal

Overview

Key to developing national security strategy is figuring out what other countries want. What are their national interests? How do they perceive them? How do they project them onto the world stage? Understanding all of this helps us to predict their behavior. In developing a national security strategy for Asia, the United States must take into account the desires of two emerging giants of the 21st century: China and India. We would be mistaken, Lal argues, if we lumped China and India together in one Asian policy, because these two countries differ greatly from one another.

Based on over 120 in-depth interviews with government officials and scholars in Beijing and New Delhi, the author's research yields some surprising news about the differences between China and India. Chinese leaders define their national interest as preservation of the state and territorial unity, whereas Indian decision makers define their national interests in relation to forces beyond India, such as the forces of globalization and their geopolitical status. One factor that accounts for these differences, among the many explored in this book, is the influence of one-party rule in China and parliamentary democracy in India. Another important finding is that China and India are unlikely to pursue hostility with each other. The U.S. approach to Asia will need to take these differences into account.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275989682
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2006
Series:	Praeger Security International
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Rollie Lal, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the College of Security Studies at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is an expert on strategy, international politics, and organized crime, and has written on a wide variety of issues related to India, China, Iran, Central Asia, North Africa, and political Islam. She is a co-author of The Muslim World after 9/11 (2004) and America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq (2003). She is also the author of Central Asia and Its Asian Neighbors: Security and Commerce at the Crossroads (2006) and articles in Orbis, the Atlantic Monthly, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, San Diego Sun Tribune, and Daily Yomiuri.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Karl D. Jackson
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Walter Andersen
1 National Interests in China and India
2 Similarities between China's and India's Pursuits of National Objectives
3 National Identity and National Interest
4 Globalization, Geopolitics, and Sovereignty
5 Political Institutions and the Hierarchy of Interests
6 China-India Relations
7 Implications
Conclusion
Appendix A China Interview Questions
Appendix B India Interview Questions
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Francis Fukuyama

"This is an excellent and pioneering analysis of two vast and increasingly important countries. Lal provides insights into the decision making of both countries through rich and sometimes amusing interviews, and delves into the national interests and aspirations of these countries as they enter the new millennium. This book also provides both students and policy makers with an understanding of why many countries are pursuing defense modernization with such zeal, and how the US fits into their calculations. An important work for anyone looking at the changing dynamics of Asia in the coming decades."

Editorial Reviews

This volume will be a good addition to all university and college libraries with significant holdings in international affairs or Asian studies. Its conclusions will not be outdated soon, and it is accessible to all levels of students. Lal posits that China and India have radically divergent views of their own national interests. Extensive interviewing of government officials and academics in both countries led the author to conclude that China sees its national interest as preservation of the state and its territorial unity, while India defines its future more in terms of the impact of globalization and its geopolitical status. Moreover, the author argues that despite these different views, China and India have pursued quite similar policies: economic reform and defense modernization. As a policy analyst, Lal succinctly and persuasively lays out the implications for the larger world, including the US, of the emergence of these two Asian superpowers in the coming century. The book is well researched, cogently argued, and well documented, and includes the interview questions used in its research. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through practitioners.” —Choice

“Will China and India promote their national interests by competition, by cooperation, or by going to war? In order to see how people define their national interest, Lal, a political scientist with expertise on Asian security, terrorism, and organized crime, goes beyond the received government word to ask citizens and leaders in China and India their perceptions of the basic needs, accomplishments, and aims of each country. The structure of her book is formal and the tone impersonal. Sections, almost like entries in a reference work, compare and evaluate Chinese and Indian responses. But the effect is bracing, leading the reader to browse and speculate. Recommended for specialist collections.” —Library Jourbanal

“Understanding China and India: Security Implications for the United States and the World is a 'must' for college-level students of either nation: it covers all the insights needed to understand a national security strategy for Asia and the interactions between two emerging powers which are very different in their approaches….[a]n essential guide.” —MBR California Bookwatch

“Lal's timely subject is the increasing power of China and India, and he specifically addresses the perceptions of each country's foreign policy elite toward the outside world, especially the U.S…..Lal's original research will assist those engaged in the study of Asia's international politics.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

Will China and India promote their national interests by competition, by cooperation, or by going to war? In order to see how people define their "national interest," Lal (RAND Corp.), a political scientist with expertise on Asian security, terrorism, and organized crime, goes beyond the received government word to ask citizens and leaders in China and India their perceptions of the basic needs, accomplishments, and aims of each country. The structure of her book is formal and the tone impersonal. Sections, almost like entries in a reference work, compare and evaluate Chinese and Indian responses. But the effect is bracing, leading the reader to browse and speculate. Recommended for specialist collections. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal