India and Pakistan have fought three wars in Kashmir and their conflict now contains the seeds of a nuclear holocaust. This chapter attempts a deeper probe of the India-Pakistan relationship, including the difficulties that India faces in managing, let alone resolving, the Kashmir dispute. Full Story »
Posted by Marsha Iverson
This brief, 2-paragraph summary is the introduction to a brilliant, 36-page analysis (presented in 2001) of the conflict between India, Pakistan, and Kashmir, and the connection with Afghanistan in the conflict. The story concludes with a link to the full text of the presentation. Well worth the effort.
India has for several years been regarded as an emerging or rising state.1 After decades of unfulfilled promise, it now seems to be inching ahead, with more rapid economic growth, new attention from the major powers, and the development of a modest nuclear arsenal. These adding these developments to India’s traditional strengths- - a unique and persistent democracy and an influential culture—it is no wonder that many have predicted the emergence of India as a major Asian power, or even a world-class state. However, this remains a problematic development as long as India’s comprehensive and debilitating rivalry with Pakistan continues, including that dimension of the rivalry that encompasses the fifty-year old Kashmir dispute.
At best the Pakistani generals may conclude that persistent hostility towards India and an obsession with Kashmir has done great damage to Pakistan, and Indian leaders will conclude that some normalization with Pakistan is necessary for India to play a wider role in the world. This is the basis for a truce between the two countries, but not the basis for a peace. For that to occur, there will have to be more profound changes in their deeper relationship, for they will remain two states allergic to each other without the development of strong economic, cultural and political ties.
Before we rush to judgment about the causes of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, US diplomats, policymakers and pundits need to fully understand the intracacies of the relationships between India, Pakistan and Afghanistan over Kashmir, as well as the Kashmiri desire for autonomy. It is entirely possible that the bombings had little to do with the USA, and far more to do with the history and economies and resources of the region. Acting without full investigation and analisys could be cataclysmic.