Introduction: Explaining Cooperation and Rivalry in China-India Relations. Issue 141 (4th May 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yoder, Brandon K.; Bajpai, Kanti
• Is Part Of: Journal of contemporary China. Volume 32:Issue 141(2023)
• Page Start: 353
• Page End: 368
• Publication Date: 2023-05-04
• Subjects: China -- Periodicals; China -- Politics and government -- 1976- -- Periodicals; Chine -- Périodiques; Chine -- Politique et gouvernement -- 1976- -- Périodiques; 306.0951
• DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2022.2090068
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1067-0564

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Recent China-India relations have been marked by a puzzling mix of cooperation and rivalry across military, economic, institutional and normative dimensions. Yet despite a large empirical literature on this crucial relationship, existing scholarship has struggled to explain its countervailing trends. This is due in large part to a lack of rigorous theory, which is essential for explanation. This article illustrates the theoretical shortcomings of current scholarship on China-India relations, drawing on the methodological literature on causal inference. It then shows how the four articles that follow in the special issue serve as a much-needed corrective to this problem by developing and applying well-specified theories to explain variation in China-India cooperation and rivalry, and presents a synthesis of their causal claims.