By James R. Holmes
Writing at Via Meadia, one of my favorite public intellectuals, Walter Russell Mead, observes that the hoopla over Kim Jong-Il’s death obscured something far more consequential: this week’s trilateral security consultations among India, Japan, and the United States.
A formal compact has bound Washington and Tokyo together for decades. Yet no tripartite alliance is in the making, despite years of hopeful talk among Indian and U.S. elites about a “natural strategic partnership” uniting the world’s two democracies. Spooked by China’s increasingly visible presence in South and Southeast Asia, New Delhi is increasingly making common cause with the allies, not to mention with other prospective partners like Australia and Vietnam. As yet, though, Indians show little sign of spurning their history of “nonalignment” in power politics.
Read the full story at The Diplomat