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STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS IN ASIA: Balancing Without Alliances. By Vidya Nadkarni. London and New York: Routledge, 2010. 255 pp. (Tables.) US$135.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-415-77774-2.
The purpose of this admirably researched book is to assess the prospects for regional-level cooperation between China, India and Russia, primarily by examining the three sets of bilateral relations. Diplomacy in each of those sets has resulted in "strategic partnerships," but the realities of partnership are at the heart of Nadkarni's study. In the end, will rivalry or cooperation dominate these relationships? What is the most useful framework-realism, neo-liberalism or constructivism-for answering that question? This quite comprehensive treatment of three of the so-called BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), omitting only Brazil, appropriately recognizes the fluidity of international relations in Asia and therefore does not come to firm conclusions about where Russia-China, China-India or Russia-India relations are headed. But the author provides the wealth of detail necessary for specialists and students alike to make their own assessment.
Take the case of China and India,...