The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics

The China–Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics

Author	Andrew Small
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	Geopolitics
Genre	Non-fiction
Set in	South and Central Asia
Published	London
Publisher	C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd.
Publication date	2015
Pages	288
ISBN

The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics is a book by British author Andrew Small exploring the cultural and political ties as well as depicting the relationship between Pakistan and China, released in early 2015. The book examines the history of the relationship as well as its current trajectory. Its introduction begins with 'The China-Pakistan axis plays a central role in Asia's geopolitics, from India's rise to the prospects for a post-American Afghanistan, from the threat of nuclear terrorism to the continent's new map of mines, ports and pipelines. China is Pakistan's great economic hope and its most trusted military partner'. It has been the subject of several articles and columns, including in the Economist, the New York Times, and the Financial Times. The book is published by Hurst Publishers in the United Kingdom and Oxford University Press in the United States.

Andrew Small is a transatlantic fellow with the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which he has helped lead since 2006. His research focuses on U.S.-China relations, EU-China relations, Chinese policy in South and South-West Asia, and China's role in "problem" and fragile states. He was based in GMF’s Brussels office for five years, where he established the Asia program and the Stockholm China Forum, GMF's biannual China policy conference. He previously worked as the director of the Foreign Policy Centre's Beijing office; as a visiting fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and was an ESU scholar in the office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. He has testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission and both the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Development Committee of the European Parliament, and his articles and papers have been published in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Quarterly, as well as many other journals, magazines and newspapers. The China-Pakistan Axis: Asia's New Geopolitics is his first book. Andrew Small was educated at Balliol College, University of Oxford.

The Beijing-Islamabad axis plays a central role in Asia’s geopolitics, from India’s rise to the prospects for a post-American Afghanistan, from the threat of nuclear terrorism to the continent’s new map of mines, ports and pipelines. China is Pakistan’s great economic hope and its most trusted military partner; Pakistan is the battleground for China’s encounters with Islamic militancy and the heart of its efforts to counterbalance the emerging US-India partnership. For decades, each country has been the other’s only ‘all-weather’ friend. Yet the relationship is still little understood. The wildest claims about it are widely believed, while many of its most dramatic developments are hidden from the public eye. This book sets out the recent history of Sino-Pakistani ties and their ramifications for the West, for India, for Afghanistan, and for Asia as a whole. It tells the stories behind some of its most sensitive aspects, including Beijing’s support for Pakistan’s nuclear program, China’s dealings with the Taliban, and the Chinese military’s planning for crises in Pakistan. And it describes a relationship increasingly shaped by Pakistan’s internal strife, and the dilemmas China faces between the need for regional stability and the imperative for strategic competition with India and the USA.