Great-power alignments in South Asia shift with the strategic threat environment

Evidence

Confronting at least a China-Pakistan alliance, if not a broader Confucian-Islamic connection, it clearly will be in India’s interests to maintain its close relationship with Russia and to remain a major purchaser of Russian military equipment. In the mid-1990s India was acquiring from Russia almost every major type of weapon including an aircraft carrier and cryogenic rocket technology, which led to U.S. sanctions. In addition to weapons proliferation, other issues between India and the United States included human rights, Kashmir, and economic liberalization. Over time, however, the cooling of U.S.-Pakistan relations and their common interests in containing China are likely to bring India and the United States closer together. The expansion of Indian power in Southern Asia cannot harm U.S. interests and could serve them. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 676

Categorization

• XREF: The predicted India-US rapprochement via shared containment of China anticipated the actual post-2000 US-India defense partnership and QUAD. — connects to: Power reverses strategies when the threat shifts from the real to simulation — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 84