The Raise of China and India to Power

869 Words2 Pages

China and India rising to power makes us think of a world where it will not just look less American, it will also look less liberal. Not only is the United States' prominence will pass away, but so, too, its open and rule-based international order that the country has adopted since the 1940s. In this view, newly powerful states are beginning to advance their own ideas and agendas for global order, and a weakened United States will find it harder to defend the old system. Here we are taking as a given that the liberal world order gets modified and not completely dissolved. Imagine a world where China is the hegemon and pushes the world order towards a more autocratic world order, both politically and economically. Completely rejecting the old model thus putting a cluster of liberal ideas such as faith in democratization, confidence in free markets, and the acceptability of U.S. military power all being called into question. In my opinion this is a panicked narrative of the scenario. Even with America losing its supremacy, will leave the liberal world order behind, resulting in the growth of economic and security interdependence between nations like China, India, Brazil, Russia. Liberal world order will adapt itself in order to survive. This adaptation will make it economically more feasible, which is what both nations aim at. So China and India wouldn’t contest the current order at all but would like to gain authority within it. Both the nations will benefit from the norms, practices and institutions like the WTO and G20. Their economic prosperity is often linked to the liberal organization of world politics. The liberal world order is not only a collection of liberal democracies but also more of a political club, which offers... ... middle of paper ... ...dress, namely insecurity and conflict. With regard to India-China relations, Nehruvians argue that other areas of interaction must not be held hostage to the border issue as economic dependence transcends them. In sum, Power is a zero-sum game, and any attempts to upgrade the standing of China and India would cost others some of their influence. Though offensive realism couched in zero-sum terms would argue that one power will inevitably rise at the cost of another, interdependency theory buttressed by liberal institutionalism indicates that great power relations can be managed without breaking out in devastating war. What is important in the end is that we do not have a singular way of managing great power relations; engagement, bandwagon and balance go hand in hand, and are necessary policy tools for states to deal with an ever more anarchic international order.

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