evidence: After decades as a bilateral conflict between the two South Asian nuclear rival nations, India and Pakistan, Kashmir has now become a triangular geopolitical dispute. The clashes between Chinese and Indian forces in the eastern Kashmiri region of Ladakh have created a two-front battlespace for India. Chinese incursions into Indian-administered territory will embolden Pakistan to up its support for Kashmiri separatists, which will greatly aggravate the struggle over the disputed region. From the U.S. perspective, there is an opportunity to align with India to try to gain advantage over a China that has increasingly become a challenge. However, there are also risks of further insecurity and instability in the region. [...] The separation of Ladakh from Jammu and Kashmir was a way for New Delhi to try to better manage the restive region and deal with the dispute with Pakistan. But it appears to have triggered Chinese concerns about the future of their control over large parts of Ladakh. Beijing is not just reacting to New Delhi’s strategic move to reorganize the largest chunk of Kashmir, which is under India’s control. The Indian military has been building roads and bridges along a large segment of the LAC that separates Chinese-held parts of Kashmir from those under Indian-administration — moves that Beijing feels are likely part of New Delhi’s efforts to weaken the Chinese position in Aksai Chin.