It brings to mind comparisons between the United States and Argentina at the end of the nineteenth century. Ogden does foreshadow China’s present-day vastly increased power and influence in Asia and the world, but his whole approach embodies the argument that the two are comparable as powerful nations. That does not mean that an exercise comparing India and China is wrong, but it clearly is incorrect to argue that India in any way is a state comparable to China in terms of any of Ogden’s chosen criteria of military capabilities, economic growth, relations with nearby states, engagement with the United States, et cetera. Practical policies based on using India as a counterweight to China’s burgeoning power, as attempted by former US Secretary of State Tillerson, have met with little acceptance. An obvious conclusion is that China is already a great world power and India, while growing, has not yet achieved great power status. In the decade since that time China has continued to grow at a remarkable pace and while India has also prospered, its economic growth is much more modest.

By 2008, just seven years after China joined the World Trade Organization, China’s share had leaped ahead to 17.5 percent and India’s had grown modestly to 6.7 percent. Maddison found in 1950 the two states were fairly close: China claimed 4.6 percent and India 4.2 percent of total world GDP.

The problem with this approach turns up as early as page 2 where Ogden quotes the comparative economist Angus Maddison’s calculations of the GDPs of India and China as a percentage of world GDP over the past two thousand years. Ogden has used this comparison in a workman-like way employing obvious dimensions such as domestic affairs, strategic identities, military capacity, and economic growth. In the early twenty-first century as both China and India began to become more developed and powerful, interest in this kind of comparison revived. This kind of comparison goes back to the 1950s when China and India both took stances as states nonaligned with the Cold War. Reviewed by David Buck (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)Ĭommissioned by Sumit Guha (The University of Texas at Austin)Ĭhris Ogden has used a familiar trope of comparing India and China as two newer world powers. China and India: Asia's Emergent Great Powers.

Great Minds by Chris Ogden