Jabin T. Jacob

China in 2011: Through the Indian Looking Glass

Isn’t China, like India, a country of over a billion people? Who but Indians can really grasp the incredible complexities and myriad problems of a billion people living under one flag?

Xi Jinping – China’s Leader-in-Waiting

Xi Jinping is unlikely to have a free hand to run China according to his wishes, given that the members of the Politbureau Standing Committee are so selected as to be capable of checking any one leader from achieving unbridled power.

Q&A: The India-China Border Conflict

Interview originally published by the World Politics Review’s Global Insider on 23 November 2011.

Buddhism in India’s Soft Power Quiver

Soft-power diplomacy involving Buddhism is smart politics by India and could form part of a larger ideational turn in its outreach to the world. If this is coalition-building, it is not targeted against China or the Chinese people but against authoritarianism everywhere.

Emerging Regional Architectures in Asia

In the case of Russia-India-China trilateral, the domestic political orientation of each country contributes fundamentally to its perceptions and views of the objectives and functions of regional organizations.

China’s Defence White Papers: A Political Reading

While studying the military aspects of China’s National Defense White Papers, Indian policymakers and military planners must pay attention to the political elements of this document in order to achieve a fuller more accurate understanding of China’s intentions.

Integrating the Outlier: Arunachal Pradesh as Development Project and Dilemma

Arunachal Pradesh’s disputed status, unique socio-cultural makeup and difficult geographic location have elicited multifaceted responses from Indian policymakers. How has this Indian ‘development agenda’ affected and molded the political economy of Arunachal Pradesh and what does it say about the role and place of Arunachal in the Indian political system and imagination?

The Age of the Lilliputians

The Asian century might not be so much about China and India as their neighbours who get these giants to behave themselves.

Reimagining Tibet in Sino-Indian Relations

With the boundary dispute ongoing, India needs to adopt a dual policy of continuing to close the military gap with China while creating incentives for cooperation.