The primary aim of this volume, titled, Waiting Games: The Politics of Patience in Indo-Pacific Strategy, has been to break out from the mainstream preoccupation with geopolitical contestations defining Sino-Indian relations in order to examine their interactions from a holistic perspective to gauge their future trajectories in the making and their impact on regional and future orders. In the Indo-Pacific theatre, patience becomes a strategic instrument, signalling commitment while preserving leverage as allies test timelines and rivals recalibrate red lines.
The Introductory chapter, followed by twelve chapters, accordingly, move from broader and generic to specific issues and interactions, which are organised in three sections. The first section, themed ‘Conceptualisation’, has three chapters, the second, themed around ‘Regional Borders’, includes six chapters, and the last section, with the theme of ‘Bilateral Interactions’, has three chapters examining critical relationships. Collectively, they seek to provide an alternate perspective on how continuing Indic and Sinic cosmologies influence their contemporary relations.
Edited by : Chih-yu Shih • Reena Marwah
Prof. Chih-yu Shih teaches at the School of Political Science and International Relations at Tongji University. His previous writings cover topics in cultural studies, international relations theory, intellectual history, and Chineseness. Currently, he is focused on linking China and the Global South as two epistemological categories through a radical interpretation of Confucianism. His recent publications include Relations and Roles in China’s Internationalism, Confucian Governmentality and Socialist Autocracy in Contemporary China, Eros of International Relations, and Post-Chineseness. In 2026, a group of critical scholars supported him in launching the journal titled “Pluriversal International Relations.” Professor Shih is also a Professor Emeritus at his alma mater, National Taiwan University. His extensive research on comparative China studies can be found at http://www.china-studies.taipei.
Prof. Reena Marwah (PhD, International Business) Former Professor, Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, is presently affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania for the Advance Study of India, India. She is Secretary General, Association of Asia Scholars (AAS); www.asiascholars.in. She is also the Founding Editor, Millennial Asia– An International Journal of Asian Studies of AAS, SAGE Publisher-SCOPUS and Clarivate Analytics: ESCI. She has over twenty authored/ edited books to her credit. Her research interests include Southeast Asian countries’ issues of international relations and economic development. Email: rmarwahicssr@gmail.com; secretarygeneral@asiascholars.in
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements
Tables and Figures
Editors
Contributors
1. Strategic Patience in India-China Relations
Chih-yu Shih, Reena Marwah
CONCEPTUALISATION
2. A Relational Approach to Strategic Patience
Chih-yu Shih and Hung-jen Wang<br>
3. From Annexation to Vassalisation: Pre-Modern China’s Strategic Patience over the Korean Peninsula
Teng-chi Chang
4. Strategic Patience in Leadership: A Case of Epistemic Validation or Cognitive Flexibility in India-China Relationship
Rajiv Ranjan
REGIONAL BORDERS
5. Managing the Sino-India Relationship: How ASEAN Survives with Strategic Patience
Reena Marwah
6. Exploring the Role of SAARC and SCO as Catalysts in Promoting the Practices of Strategic Patience between India and China
Sharad K Soni
7. Strategic Patience in India-China Interface: Shaping the Region from Indochina to the South China Sea
Pooja Bhatt
8. Taiwan’s Strategic Patience: Redefining Cross-Strait Relations by Navigating US-Taiwan Relations
Hung-jen Wang
9. Navigating Geopolitical Waters: India’s Approach to Strategic Patience in the Taiwan Straits
K. Mansi
10. Strategic Patience Variations: China’s Path to Govern Xinjiang and Shape Regional Order in Central Asia
Chienyu Shih
BILATERALS
11. Strategic Patience in Nuclear Decision-making of China and India
Abhishek Verma
12. An Analysis of China’s Strategic Patience in China-India Border Negotiations Since 2020
Tien-sze Fang
13. Sino-Indian Economic Relations: Do Mutual Interests Demand Strategic Patience?
Jasmin
Index
Political Science
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