Zone balancing: India and the Quad's new strategic logic

Abstract When a state faces rising great power rival, it has range of balancing options from which to choose. But may consider many the most common be either too costly or unduly provocative. Thus India, for example, considered 2020 strategic watershed—with clearly more aggressive China on border, and disorderly international system after COVID pandemic—but undertaken only modest military balancing. What alternative do such erstwhile balancers have? This article addresses both those theoretical empirical puzzles, by introducing novel concept ‘zone balancing’ as another option in state's repertoire. Zone seeks shape field competition balancer rival operate—specifically, build capacity resilience third-party states, shrink rival's ability coerce them. advances that uses explain India's post-2020 adjustment, especially its warmer embrace Quad—the minilateral grouping comprising Australia, Japan United States. effectively explains Quad's recently-clarified logic, predicts some limitations.