The concurrent rise of India and China is habitually measured in economic weight, military capability and diplomatic reach. This volume begins elsewhere. India and China are modern sovereign states that draw legitimacy and purpose from civilisational inheritances far older than the Westphalian system, and thinkers and leaders in each country continue to reinterpret that inheritance for a contemporary age. How such inherited ideas shape conceptions of order, leadership and power is the question this book sets out to explore.

Nineteen chapters, written by leading Indian and Chinese scholars, practitioners and former diplomats, are organised around four themes: the civilisational state, global landscape, multilateralism and the Global South, and the emerging world order. Contributors read dharma and tianxia as living cosmologies of order; examine Kautilyan, Confucian, Legalist and Daoist traditions of statecraft; and place Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and Vishwa Mitra alongside the Community of Shared Future and China’s global initiatives. They trace the decade since 2014 through the Wuhan and Mamallapuram meetings and the Kazan and Tianjin summits, and assess the Russia-India-China triangle, the European dimension, and the strategic use of BRICS, the SCO and the G20 in the reform of global governance.

What distinguishes this book is its structure of dialogue. Indian and Chinese authors write to shared questions, and their answers are set side by side, offering readers an unusually direct exchange between two scholarly communities that too rarely address one another at length.

Together these essays make the case for co-existence, mutual learning and harmony in difference between Asia`s two great civilisations — a relationship on which, the contributors suggest, the shape of a multipolar century will substantially depend.

Alok Bansal is the Executive Vice-President of India Foundation & the Secretary General of Asian Eurasian Human Rights Forum (AEHRF). A seasoned strategic affairs analyst, he has previously served as the Executive Director of the National Maritime Foundation (NMF) and has held research positions at leading Indian think tanks including the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS). He has authored/edited 10 books. His work focuses on maritime security, South Asian geopolitics, and internal dynamics of Pakistan. A former naval officer, he served in the Indian Navy for 32 years and commanded two warships. A PhD in International Affairs, he has been a visiting Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia.

ZHANG Jiadong is Professor of International Relations, Director of Center for South Asia Studies, and Senior Researcher in Center for American Studies, Fudan University. His field of study includes China-US-India Relations, South Asia and anti-terrorism issues. He is also the Director of Institute of Strategic Studies and International Security, at Fudan Institute of Belt and Road & Global Governance (BRGG). Prof Jiadong is the Vice Chairperson of Shanghai Institute for International Strategic Studies, and China Association for South Asian Studies. Previously, he has held the position of Second Secretary in Chinese Embassy, New Delhi from 2013 to 2015. He was also the Vice Secretary General, in Dehong Prefecture Government in Yunan Province from 2020 to 2021.

Siddharth Singh is a Senior Research Fellow at India Foundation, New Delhi. He holds a Master`s in International Relations and an M.Phil. in Indo-Pacific Studies, both from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). His research engages contemporary Indo-Pacific affairs, Indian Ocean and India’s maritime diplomacy. He is also the Assistant Editor of the India Foundation Journal. He contributes articles and analytical commentary on Indo-Pacific and China to leading international and regional platforms, including The Diplomat, Asia Times etc.