ABSTRACT
Two major strategic fault lines mark South Asia. They are the Indo-Pakistani conflict over Kashmir and the Sino-Indian border dispute.1 The first dispute involves considerations of power balances as well as profound issues of national identity. The second is rooted in a more straightforward rivalry about status and position in Asia. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has had a long-standing border dispute with India that remains unresolved. The end of the Cold War did not have any discernible effect in terms of ameliorating either of these two deep-seated disputes. In more recent years, the PRC has come to view India as the only serious Great Power competitor in the region and its environs. Despite the increasing disparity in material capabilities between these two states, the PRC remains unreconciled to India’s rise and has evinced little or no interest in settling the border dispute.
