Beyond Strategic Patience

Practicing Strategy in addressing India's China Challenge

Abstract

In the expanding body of Indian policy literature on managing the China challenge since the 2020 border crisis, this article focuses on two works: Bambawale et al.’s Rising to the China Challenge: Winning through Strategic Patience and Economic Growth (2021), and Kewalramani (ed.)’s Taming the Dragon: A Manifesto for a New Modus Vivendi with China (2026). Published roughly five years apart, the two help assess how thinking in India has evolved over this period. While the earlier work defines the direction of “Strategic Patience” at a conceptual level, the later work translates that direction into ground-level prescriptions for its practical implementation.