Coping with the Dragon: Small States of South Asia and Their Foreign Policy Responses to China’s Rise
Coping with the Dragon: Small States of South Asia and Their Foreign Policy Responses to China’s Rise

Summary/Abstract: The extraordinary rise of China is one of the most remarkable events of the 21stcentury and it has attracted tremendous interest in international politics. Yet,the ways in which the small states in South Asia strategically respond to the changesin the systemic structure have largely been neglected in traditional literature.This article seeks to fill this gap by systematically analysing the types and causesof strategies undertaken by three small states in South Asia in order to respond toChina’s rise. Empirically, it focuses on the contentious regional dyads in SouthAsia and its maritime domain, exploring how structural, behavioural, and pastexperiences shape the way in which Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives respond toa rising China and the regional power politics. This article concludes that the smallstates in South Asia are neither bandwagoning nor balancing China, as structuralrealism assumes. Instead, these states have adopted a form of a ‘hedging’ strategywhere they do not merely act as Lilliputians in Gulliver’s world, but they maximiseopportunities that a rising China offers these countries of South Asia.

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