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Challenges to Global Governance: Can the Asian Giants Show the Way?
That the world is going through a transition to a multipolar order is now indisputable. This new order will require new rules of engagement. Can the two Asian giants, China and India, help frame some of these rules? Have they been able to cooperate on any issues of global governance so far? These are some of the questions we explore in this chapter. The chapter begins with a definition of ‘international order’. It then examines the transition to a multipolar world order and the challenges to global governance in this new order. It then looks at areas where China and India have cooperated and can cooperate. It concludes that while they could cooperate and set the rules in areas where they do not have core interests, it is unrealistic to expect them to help in framing rules of high politics because, as two rising powers, their goals are inherently irreconcilable and contradictory: while China appears to be seeking hegemony in Asia, India, too, has ambitions to be a great power.