"The Pakistanis have been badly weakened by the war in Afghanistan, and they are no longer an effective counterbalance to India.Why does India need "counrterbalancing"?
India is no longer in the camp of the USSR, and is is on target to become a leading trading partner of the US, and is THE WORLD LARGEST DEMOCRACY.
George Friedman is way off base on this one.
It never had anything to do with USSR. The policy of “counrterbalancing” India had been in existence since Truman and Eisenhower when India had little contact with USSR. And even after the break up of USSR the same policy was carried forward through the Clinton years. Only GWB momentarily reversed that policy but now it back to Status quo ante. There is hardly anything surprising in that comment. The language clearly articulates a cornerstone of US foreign policy vis-à-vis India.