India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir Dispute

Book excerpt: Kashmir is the focal point of an acute regional dispute that has pitted India and Pakistan against one another ever since they gained their independence from Great Britain in 1947. Already, these bitter rivals have gone to war twice over Kashmir, leaving the state physically divided and heavily militarized. The eruption of massive anti-Indian violence in Indian Kashmir in early 1990 has changed the dispute, further complicating India-Pakistan relations and lending even greater urgency to the search for settlement. The reasons for, and possible resolutions of, this dispute are the themes of Professor Wirsing's book. Drawing on repeated field visits and wide-ranging interviews with government officials, political leaders, military officers, and diplomats in both India and Pakistan, the author provides abundant new material on the Kashmir dispute's political, military, domestic, and international dimensions. The book responds to mounting international concern about Kashmir with specific, step-by-step recommendations for breaking the existing diplomatic stalemate between India and Pakistan.