Asia Media reviews a new book, “Understanding China and India: Security Implications for the United States and the World” by Rollie Lal:
One of the pitfalls in the making of United States foreign policy is that often too little weight is accorded to the concerns of other countries. It is important to understand why countries do what they do — and what is important to them — to avoid ineffective policy or, worse still, policy blunders. Only by understanding another country’s point of view — its beliefs, values, desires, fears and dissatisfactions — can a strong foundation for policy be established.
Understanding China and India: Security Implications for the United States and the World goes a long way toward illuminating the views of policymakers and other elites in the world’s two most populous countries. A major focus of the book is in explaining why China and India are modernizing their militaries and have undertaken economic reform. According to author Rollie Lal, a political scientist at RAND Corporation, China is primarily concerned with protecting the unity of the state and its territorial sovereignty against separatist threats while India is more focused on asserting its political and economic sovereignty in the international sphere. [Full text]
