The Doklam Dilemma Assessing the Impact of Bhutan–China Boundary Normalization on India's National Security

The rapid normalization of Bhutan–China border relations is one of the most overlooked challenges to India's national security. This paper examines how China’s ongoing advances into Bhutanese territory, including the creation of the Joint Technical Team (JTT) in 2023 and the building of at least 22 Chinese villages inside Bhutan by 2024, directly threaten India’s key interests, especially around the Doklam plateau and the Siliguri Corridor. Using a defensive neorealist approach, the paper argues that China’s actions with Bhutan are not just a bilateral matter but a deliberate effort to shift the balance of power in the Himalayas. India has responded by modernizing its military, improving infrastructure, and quietly managing its relationship with Thimphu to maintain deterrence and avoid direct conflict. The paper concludes that India must institutionalise a trilateral consultative mechanism and accelerate alternative connectivity to the Northeast to hedge against worst-case boundary outcomes