Rising China and emerging India are becoming major maritime powers. As they build large navies to secure their growing interests, both nations are roiling the waters of the Indo-Pacific-the vast littoral stretching from Africa to Australasia.

Invoking a tale from Hindu mythology- Samudra Manthan or "to churn the ocean"-C. Raja Mohan tells the story of a Sino-Indian rivalry spilling over from the Great Himalayas into the Indian and Pacific Oceans. He examines the prospects of mitigating the tensions and constructing a stable Indo-Pacific order.

America, the dominant power in the area, is being drawn into the unfolding Sino-Indian competition. Despite the huge differences in the current naval capabilities of China, India, and the United States, Mohan argues that the three countries are locked in a triangular struggle destined to mold the future Indo-Pacific.

C. Raja Mohan heads the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi. He is a columnist on foreign affairs for one of India's leading English dailies, Indian Express, a nonresident senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Mohan has published widely and his books include Crossing the Rubicon: The Shaping of India's New Foreign Policy (2004) and Impossible Allies: Nuclear India, United States and the Global Order (2006).