ABSTRACT

The triangular relationship between China, India, and the United States will profoundly shape the geopolitics of the twenty-first century. Already the China–US relationship is widely considered the world’s most geopolitically consequential. Their escalating strategic competition has cast a pall over the Indo-Pacific as it has begun to assume characteristics of a generational competition reminiscent of, but quite distinct from, the Cold War. As was the case with that struggle, the China–US rivalry will be shaped by the conduct of other influential power centers, including Europe, Russia, and Japan. But none has greater long-term potential to impact the rivalry, China’s rise, and global politics writ large than India.