Introduction to 'Managing Globalisation': Lessons from China and India

While talk of a 'China-India axis complete with 2.4 billion people' is no doubt fanciful, the progress in relations over the seven years following the nuclear crisis of 1998 is claiming the close attention of observers of world poliitics. Above and beyod their potential economic synergy, the growth of mutual interests culminated in the annoucnedment of a 'China-India Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity' during the vist of Premier Wen Jiabao to India in April 2005. We are likely to see collaborations at many levels, from agriculture, military, regional crisis like the tsunami of December 2004 to the Asia regional forums and networks and in the UN. Both parties speak the language of win-win and both have specific real interests in rational multipolarism: in balancing the world's sole superpower while taking a share in the benefits its friendship brings.