The Doklam Standoff Is Not About A Road

While the world's attention has been focused primarily on the escalating war of words between the United States and North Korea, another equally dangerous standoff has been playing out. High in the Himalayas, in the secluded Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, a small area of land, called the Doklam Plateau is now a center of superpower tensions.

Bhutan, with its tiny military, barely plays a role. Instead, this is a conflict between India and China, both of whom have competing territorial claims to the region. Recently both sides have moved troops into the region after China upset the status quo by building a road into a disputed section of the region (claimed by both Bhutan and China). Due to its location, the plateau is highly strategic, and India feels like it cannot afford to back down in its 'defense' of what it believes is Bhutanese territory.

Regardless of specifics, the danger of escalation is real, with the media of both sides fuelling the rhetoric of war, while analysts and politicians quietly debate what a resolution might look like, and why China is seemingly trying to provoke conflict.

This article by Praveen Swami for the Indian Express, however, takes a rather more nuanced view of the situation and attempts to explain what China hopes to gain from the standoff. Looking at the country's past, it examines how China's border insecurity is born of a tumultuous history, and how it often provoked small conflicts in order to establish new 'facts on the ground' with its neighbors. While I think this is a rather one-sided take on the issue, it does do a good job explaining India's fears and provides a solid historical introduction to the ongoing dispute.