The War for India

Podcast · Guest appearance on Dwarkesh Podcast · dwarkesh.com

• Frames Cold War South Asia through pivotal decisions, alliance formation, and the principle that “common enemies cannot be conjured” — alliances hold only when partners share an actual primary adversary.
• Traces Mao’s 1950 conquest of Tibet (which built road infrastructure eroding the China-India buffer), Eisenhower-era “pactomania” (bilateral pacts with Pakistan that soured US-India relations for decades), and the 1960s Sino-Soviet split as the era’s structural pivot points.
• Distinguishes limited wars aimed short of regime change (the 1962 Sino-Indian War, 1971 Bangladesh independence) from frozen conflicts that perpetuate suffering when external powers fund insurgencies without bearing the costs.
• Explains why India-Russia and Pakistan-China pairings proved durable while US alignment with either India or Pakistan automatically antagonized the other — the shared-adversary logic cutting against US interests in the region.
• Covers Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Mao, Khrushchev, Nixon, Kissinger, Bhutto, and Zia ul-Haq as the key figures whose individual decisions shaped the regional order.