This edited volume examines global power-rivalry in and around South Asia through Bangladeshi lenses using imperfect and overlapping interest concentric-circles as a template. Dynamics from three transitions -the United States exiting the Cold War, China emerging as a global-level power, and India's eastern interests squaring off with China's Belt Road Initiative, BRI-help place China, India, and the United States (in alphabetical order) in Bangladesh's inner-most circle, China, India, and the United States in a mid-stream circle, and the United States and Latin America, among other countries, in the outer-most circle, depending on the issue.
In an atmosphere of short-term gains over-riding long-term considerations, the desperate, widespread search for infrastructural funding inside South Asia enhances China's value, raises local heat, releases new challenges, with costly default consequences looming, issue-specific analysis overtaking formal bilateral relations and a stubborn uncertainty riddling the Bangladeshi air as its policy preferences stubbornly show more certainty.