Sino-India Rivalry in South Asia: The Politics of Strategic Hedging by the "Non-Nuclear Five".

The "non-nuclear five" (NN5) countries consisting of Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have common geographical and/or regional borders with India and have historically been in their big neighbor's historic and cultural sphere of influence. Yet, over the years, as China has made significant inroads into the South Asian region, NN5 are getting entangled in the India-China rivalry. In this paper, we posit how the NN5 exhibit a common pattern of strategic hedging given their bilateral relations with regional hegemon India, along with the rising influence of China. By analyzing comparative trends in the South Asian region, we contribute empirically to the research on "hedging" in international relations, since to date no study has examined all these five countries using this concept. The study is relevant because the US administration is increasingly focusing on "small countries" in its Indo-Pacific strategy, and the NN5 are such countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]