Samudra Manthan

Rising China and emerging India are becoming major maritime powers. As they build large navies to secure their growing interests, both nations are roiling the waters of the Indo-Pacific—the vast littoral stretching from Africa to Australasia.

Invoking a tale from Hindu mythology— Samudra Manthan or "to churn the ocean"—C. Raja Mohan tells the story of a Sino-Indian rivalry spilling over from the Great Himalayas into the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He examines the prospects of mitigating the tensions and constructing a stable Indo-Pacific order.

America, the dominant power in the area, is being drawn into the unfolding Sino-Indian competition. Despite the huge differences in the current naval capabilities of China, India, and the United States, Mohan argues that the three countries are locked in a triangular struggle destined to mold the future Indo-Pacific.

C. Raja Mohan heads the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi. He is a columnist on foreign affairs for one of India's leading English dailies, Indian Express, a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Mohan has published widely and his books include Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India's New Foreign Policy (2004) and Impossible Allies: Nuclear India, United States and the Global Order (2006).