The article analyzes the security dynamics of competing regional powers that have the added characteristic of geographic contiguity. It argues that geographic contiguity further exacerbates rivalry between two rising regional powers. As geographically contiguous regional powers attempt to build regional security frameworks as a step toward possible hegemony, they are bound to encounter conflicting interests. Due to the overwhelming decline of violent conquest and the extensive cost of undertaking war with another rising regional power, competing powers resort to soft balancing approaches in trying to constrain the rival’s strategic space. The Sino‐Indian relationship is used as a case study given their geographic contiguity, status as rising powers, and rivalrous bilateral relationship.
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