Kashmir: all tactics,no strategy

Despite a recent deescalation of military tensions and the fairest election in more than two decades, Kashmiris do not express much optimism about their future. If this skepticism is justified, perhaps it is due to a near-universal emphasis on short-term tactics at the expense of long-term strategy. Virtually all parties to the conflict in Kashmir – whether based in New Delhi, Islamabad, Srinagar or Muzaffarabad, seem to be thinking tactically rather than strategically. The one notable is the most implacable segment of the jihadist militants: all the more reason to be pessimistic.     

Postcolonial Nation-Making: Warfare,Jihad, Subjectivity,and Compassion in the Region of Kashmir

This is a review essay on Body of Victim, Body of Warrior: Refugee Families and the Making of Kashmiri Jihadists by Cabeiri Debergh Robinson and Counterinsurgency, Democracy, and the Politics of Identity in India: From Warfare to Welfare? by Mona Bhan. This review contains a succinct overview of the two books, followed by a discussion of the emergent subjectivities and incorporation of humanitarianism into militarism and jihad in the region of Kashmir.     

Third-Party Intervention in Ethno-Religious Conflict: Role Theory,Pakistan, and War in Kashmir, 1965

ABSTRACT

Third-party intervention in ethno-religious conflict is an old phenomenon, although scholarly attention with a general range of application is generally new and uncommon. This study with attempt, through a systematic review of religion and other factors that can impact upon foreign policy role performance, to explain Pakistan's intervention in Kashmir, which led to full-scale war in 1965.

The article unfolds in six sections. The first provides an overview of thirf-party intervention in ethno-religious conflict. The second section introduces systemism a framework that brings together unit- and system-level factors. The theory of role analysis in foreign policy and its usefulness in explaining third-party, ethno-religious intervention is covered in the third section. Section four brings together systemism and role theory and eleborates linkages, with an emphasis on religion and other salient factors from the literature on foreign policy and intenational conflict. The fifth section presents the case study of Pakistan's intervention in India in 1965. Section six sums up the findings from the case study and offers a few observations about the contemporary situation in Kashmir.     

Politics,proximity and paranoia: the evolution of Kashmir as a nuclear flashpoint

This article traces the evolution of Kashmir as a “nuclear flashpoint,” and the relationship between Kashmir, nuclear weapons, and regional security. The first section discusses the concept of a geopolitical flashpoint, providing a definition and a series of historical examples. The Kashmir issue and its role in the broader Indo-Pakistani conflict fit reasonably neatly into this definition. A second section briefly traces the history of nuclear weapons programs in the region, as the potential for nuclear escalation by competing powers or their allies is a key factor in defining nuclear flashpoints (a post-1945 phenomenon). The third section examines the evolution of the Kashmir issue and successive Indo-Pakistani crises within a nuclearized regional environment from 1984 to 2003. The final section assesses the prospects for Kashmir in the near future, and concludes that due to underlying political factors, Kashmir will remain a nuclear flashpoint for the foreseeable future.     

Strategies,capabilities, and demands: Explaining outcomes in violent intrastate nationalist conflicts

The study of nationalist and ethnic conflict has undergone considerable growth since the end of the Cold War. Much of the effort has been focused on ascertaining the nature and origins of such conflicts, and less on their process and termination. Those studies that do focus on conflict termination have generally done so using case‐study or idiosyncratic methods. Hence, we do not yet have much large‐N or statistical evidence that might suggest broad trends in how such conflicts end, or even much experience in measuring the relevant concepts in a manner conducive to such methods. This paper will address these questions by introducing a theoretical framework that seeks to explain the outcomes of violent intrastate nationalist conflicts. It will discuss measurement issues for relevant independent variables, and present data for a group of 75 violent, intrastate nationalist conflicts from 1945–1996. This data will then be used to test propositions derived from the model. The aim is to provide a useful building block for the study of the process and outcome of conflicts which political scientists now recognize to be some of the most important for the coming century.     

Introduction: the EU,East Asian conflicts,and the norm of integration

The promotion of regional integration is a core objective of the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy and has been seen as part of its attempt to transform international society and to make the world a more peaceful place to live. However, the success of this regionalization strategy has been limited and East Asia has been a particularly problematic case. This introduction raises some fundamental questions by first presenting some basic concepts so that the overall studies of the special issue can be systematically undertaken. The underlying questions are the following: How bleak is the picture with regard to regionalism in East Asia and the roles of the EU? Has the EU had no effect on the development of East Asian regionalism? And what potential does regional integration have in helping the transformation of conflicts in East Asia? In addition to these questions, it also discusses and conceptualizes underlying discourses on regional integration, conflict transformation, and regionalism in East Asia. By doing so, it aims to point out that the East Asia region is changing, the EU does play a role in this, and regionalization cannot be ignored as an institutional context that has the potential to assist conflict transformation, especially if windows of opportunity for such engagement arise in the future.     

US policy and the Kashmir dispute: prospects for resolution

Washington refuses to chart a roadmap for peace in Kashmir. Although the chances for resolving the dispute are low, the probability of failure should not inhibit the US government from pursuing a more proactive role in resolving the conflict. The United States is the “sole pole” in a unipolar international system; regarding the world's thorniest disputes, it either leads or bears the brunt of its own passivity. Leadership requires more than devising policies that are guaranteed to work; it also involves taking risks on bold initiatives that may fail, but whose unlikely success would produce greater stability in global affairs. This article examines the admittedly slim prospects for settling the Kashmir dispute and the role Washington might play in such a process. It argues that only one conflict-resolution option seems even remotely viable: a phased conversion of the existing Kashmiri Line of Control into an internationally recognized Indo-Pakistani border.     

印巴关系的变化与克什米尔问题

在半个多世纪中 ,克什米尔问题始终困扰着印巴关系 ,是印巴军事冲突不断的症结 ,也是南亚地区动荡的重要因素。近期在多方面因素的影响下 ,印巴双方都积极主动提出了一系列和解建议 ,就此印巴关系开始趋于缓和。 2 0 0 3年 11月印巴双方签定了克什米尔停火协议 ,双方改善关系成为了现实。尔后印巴双方又进一步表示愿就包括克什米尔问题在内的南亚和平进程进行谈判。但由于历史和现实的复杂性 ,克什米尔问题能否得到最终妥善解决 ,印巴在这一地区的军事冲突能否就此而结束 ,印巴关系的缓和能否继续下去 ,仍难得出乐观的结论。     

Disputes and conflicts inside organizations: A systems approach

Book reviewed in this article: Robert R. Blake and Jane Srygley Mouton , Solving Costly Organizational Conflicts David Ewing , Justice on the Job William L. Ury, Jeanne M. Brett , and Stephen B. Goldberg , Getting Disputes Resolved: Designing Systems to Cut the Costs of Conflict Alan F. Westin and Alfred G. Feliu , Resolving Employment Disputes Without Litigation James T. Ziegenfuss , Organizational Troubleshooters: Resolving Problems with Customers and Employees     

Terrorism and the media: Problems,solutions, and counterproblems

This article is divided into two main parts. The first part frames the problem of “terrorism and the media” in terms of a complex interaction involving three kinds of relationships. The first is the relationship between terrorists and governments; the second is the relationship between terrorists and the media; and the third is the relationship between government and the media. The second part examines the specific roles of the media in covering terrorism and the impact of such coverage. Four kinds of solutions to the problems deriving from this impact are examined in turn: the use of media guidelines, the use of legislation and legal sanctions, media‐government cooperation, and training and education. Finally, the practicality of these solutions is examined by highlighting the kinds of problems or “counterproblems” that are inherent in each solution.     

Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in theory and practice

This article argues there is a need for a more nuanced analysis of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir than has been available so far. First, the popular legitimacy of violent groups has little bearing on their operation. Rather, the keys to the intensity of terrorist activity are held by Pakistan's military establishment. Second, the supposedly secular-nationalist movement of the early 1990s was in fact deeply Islamist in character; there has been a greater unity of thought underpinning terrorism than the literature admits. Finally, the article argues, the operation of terrorism needs to be read not simply in the limited context of Jammu and Kashmir, but as part of a larger South Asian crisis of identity.     

Feminist international relations and women militants: case studies from Sri Lanka and Kashmir

This paper presents women's militant activities outside the binary framework of ‘victimhood’ and ‘agency’ and invokes postmodern feminist international relations analyses to engage with women's material and ideological contribution to militant activities and political violence. Women who support and indulge in both discriminate and indiscriminate violence against institutions of the state and unarmed civilians not only redefine notions of nationalism, gender and religious identity, but also highlight their complex and problematic relationship with feminism. To what extent does participating in militant activities and armed combat provide women with opportunities to transcend conventional gender roles? In other words, do they remain the ‘other’ within ‘the other’? How are militant women influenced by these political movements and how do they influence these movements? What happens when the ‘protected’ and ‘upheld’ become the ‘protectors’ and ‘upholders’? How does/should feminist international relations approach these militant women? I attempt to address these questions through a study of women militants and their constructions as gendered political subjects in Kashmir and Sri Lanka.     

The OSCE and ethnic conflicts in Estonia,Georgia, and Tajikstan: A search for sustainable peace and its limits

This article analyzes some of the experiences of the OSCE in Estonia, Georgia, and Tajikistan. Conflicts in these three countries followed the demise of the Soviet Union and had basic aspects in common: actual and potential border claims; the presence of a large number of national minorities whose ethnicity is shared with neighbouring kin‐ethnic states; as well as conflicting claims of national self‐determination and territorial integrity. By comparing and contrasting these cases, this article discusses the implications of the OSCE's approach and its limits in the context of the former Soviet Union, and offers some policy recommendations for the future OSCE's activities in this region. The central arguments are as follows: the OSCE has played a significant role in building a sustainable peace in the former Soviet Union where few European institutions have attempted to intervene; and that while being heavily influenced by Russian policies, the OSCE's activities in the CIS were not simple reflections of Russian interests.     

印巴克什米尔博弈

克什米尔冲突一直是印度和巴基斯坦两国关系中的核心问题,半个多世纪以来克什米尔见证了印巴两国关系的曲折和反复。文章从博弈论的角度分析了印巴在克什米尔问题上博弈的四种情况及其相对应的利害关系;并在此基础上阐述了两国必须认清的?客观存在的但又都不愿面对的基本事实。文章最后指出,无论用何种方法和平解决克什米尔问题,首要的条件是两国之间的政治互信。     

中国的南亚外交与克什米尔问题

长达半个多世纪的克什米尔问题一直困扰印度与巴基斯坦的关系,随着印巴两国矛盾尖锐以及双方均已实际拥有核武器,克什米尔问题从根本上威胁到南亚地区乃至全球的安全稳定。中国对克什米尔问题的立场调整的中国南亚政策的重要体现,始终反映了中国与印度、巴基斯坦两国的战略关系变化,同时也与中国自身国家利益相关。近年来的印巴和平进程、中印关系的良性发展、以及美国等其他大国对南亚战略影响的加深,均对中国南亚政策的定位提出新的要求。