Fighting to the End

Fighting to the End
Author: C. Christine Fair
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2014-04-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199892717

Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, its army has dominated the state. The military establishment has locked the country in an enduring rivalry with India, with the primary aim of wresting Kashmir from it. To that end, Pakistan initiated three wars over Kashmir-in 1947, 1965, and 1999-and failed to win any of them. Today, the army continues to prosecute this dangerous policy by employing non-state actors under the security of its ever-expanding nuclear umbrella. It has sustained a proxy war in Kashmir since 1989 using Islamist militants, as well as supporting non-Islamist insurgencies throughout India and a country-wide Islamist terror campaign that have brought the two countries to the brink of war on several occasions. In addition to these territorial revisionist goals, the Pakistani army has committed itself to resisting India's slow but inevitable rise on the global stage. Despite Pakistan's efforts to coerce India, it has achieved only modest successes at best. Even though India vivisected Pakistan in 1971, Pakistan continues to see itself as India's equal and demands the world do the same. The dangerous methods that the army uses to enforce this self-perception have brought international opprobrium upon Pakistan and its army. And in recent years, their erstwhile proxies have turned their guns on the Pakistani state itself. Why does the army persist in pursuing these revisionist policies that have come to imperil the very viability of the state itself, from which the army feeds? In Fighting to the End, C. Christine Fair argues that the answer lies, at least partially, in the strategic culture of the army. Through an unprecedented analysis of decades' worth of the army's own defense publications, she concludes that from the army's distorted view of history, it is victorious as long as it can resist India's purported drive for regional hegemony as well as the territorial status quo. Simply put, acquiescence means defeat. Fighting to the End convincingly shows that because the army is unlikely to abandon these preferences, Pakistan will remain a destabilizing force in world politics for the foreseeable future.

Shared Watercourses and Water Security in South Asia

Shared Watercourses and Water Security in South Asia
Author: Salman M.A. Salman
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2018-08-13
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9004385053

Shared water resources in South Asia face various challenges including scarcity, population growth, and climate change impacts on all the riparians. Consequently, national calls for water security have become louder. As a result, collaboration among the nations of South Asia for ensuring equitable sharing of such water resources has not been optimal. While most countries do not have reliable systems for data generation, those possessing some hydrological data consider them state secrets, restricting their exchange. Even when treaty obligations exist, data-sharing practices are ad hoc, and the range of information shared is limited. Thus, negotiating new transboundary water treaties amongst South Asia’s riparian countries has become a daunting task, and enforcing existing ones remains a real challenge.

Pakistan's Wars

Pakistan's Wars
Author: Tariq Rahman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2022-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000594408

This book studies the wars Pakistan has fought over the years with India as well as other non-state actors. Focusing on the first Kashmir war (1947–48), the wars of 1965 and 1971, and the 1999 Kargil war, it analyses the elite decision-making, which leads to these conflicts and tries to understand how Pakistan got involved in the first place. The author applies the ‘gambling model’ to provide insights into the dysfunctional world view, risk-taking behaviour, and other behavioural patterns of the decision makers, which precipitate these wars and highlight their effects on India–Pakistan relations for the future. The book also brings to the fore the experience of widows, children, common soldiers, displaced civilians, and villagers living near borders, in the form of interviews, to understand the subaltern perspective. A nuanced and accessible military history of Pakistan, this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of military history, defence and strategic studies, international relations, political studies, war and conflict studies, and South Asian studies.

Universalizing Nuclear Nonproliferation Norms

Universalizing Nuclear Nonproliferation Norms
Author: Adil Sultan
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2018-11-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030013340

This book suggests a new bargain between the NPT nuclear weapon states and the non-NPT nuclear weapons possessor states, mainly India and Pakistan, through a regional arrangement to help move towards universalization of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. The author analyses nuclear proliferation drivers to understand why states acquire and justify possession of nuclear weapons even though most nuclear weapon states no longer are faced with an existential threat to their national security. This study also identifies various challenges being faced by the NPT based nuclear nonproliferation regime, which if left unaddressed, could unravel the nonproliferation regime. It also offers the history of confidence building measures between India and Pakistan, which could be a useful reference for negotiating a Regional Nonproliferation Regime (RNR) in the future.

Evolving Dynamics of Nuclear South Asia

Evolving Dynamics of Nuclear South Asia
Author:
Publisher: KW Publishers Pvt Ltd
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2014-03-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9385714465

India and Pakistan have both never really accepted each other’s existence. Their ties have been characterised by a lingering hostility and a pronounced qualitative and quantitative military imbalance in favour of India. Additionally, India took the lead in developing nuclear weapons while Pakistan only seriously embarked on this endeavour after India had already conducted its “peaceful nuclear explosion” in 1974. Having lost half of their country in 1971, and realising that they could never really hope to match India in conventional military might, Pakistan embarked on nuclear weapons development in the early 1970s more as a necessity rather than as a need. Despite adopting the more difficult route of uranium enrichment, Pakistan proved virtually unstoppable. While China provided some assistance to Pakistan, the United States maintained a marked ambivalence towards her quest for nuclear weapons – it sometimes applied sanctions against Pakistan while at other times, it opted to ignore what was happening by turning a blind eye. The weaponisation of their nuclear capability in 1998 led India and Pakistan to venture into the realm of doctrinal rethinking. Commencing with a revision of the conventional military doctrines, this led to India publishing its draft nuclear doctrine whereas Pakistan preferred ambiguity. The essential consideration herein was on how the conventional military thinking of both the countries has been influenced by the availability of nuclear weapons in their respective inventories. Along with this process of doctrinal evolution, both countries were required to establish viable and internationally acceptable nuclear weapon control systems. The doctrinal evolution was responsible for inducing several systemic changes in their armed forces, and their entire military system had to undergo significant changes. Simultaneously, these led to a fresh assessment of the comparative nuclear military potential of the two countries and how this could possibly be employed in a future conflict.

African Perspectives on Global Pandemics and the Challenges of Peace and Security

African Perspectives on Global Pandemics and the Challenges of Peace and Security
Author: Masake Pilisano Harris
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2023-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1666924814

This book examines the legal and security threat posed by pandemics in Africa and beyond. The authors propose that to effectively counter pandemics, it is necessary for states to transcend beyond a realism approach and to adopt security policies that reflect the multidimensional nature of state authority and functions.

Pakistan, Regional Security and Conflict Resolution

Pakistan, Regional Security and Conflict Resolution
Author: Farooq Yousaf
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000209695

This book explains how colonial legacies and the postcolonial state of Pakistan negatively influenced the socio-political and cultural dynamics and the security situation in Pakistan’s Pashtun ‘tribal’ areas, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It offers a local perspective on peace and conflict resolution in Pakistan’s Pashtun ‘tribal’ region. Discussing the history and background of the former-FATA region, the role of Pashtun conflict resolution mechanism of Jirga, and the persistence of colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in the region, the author argues that the persistence of colonial legacies in the Pashtun ‘tribal’ areas, especially the FCR, coupled with the overarching influence of the military on security policy has negatively impacted the security situation in the region. By focusing on the Jirga and Jirga-based Lashkars (or Pashtun militias), the book demonstrates how Pashtuns have engaged in their own initiatives to handle the rise of militancy in their region. Moreover, the book contends that, even after the introduction of constitutional reforms and FATA’s merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, little has changed in the region, especially regarding the treatment of ‘tribal’ Pashtuns as equal citizens of Pakistan. This book explains, in detail, why indigenous methods of peace and conflict resolution, such as the Jirga, could play "some" role towards long-term peace in the South Asian region. Historically and contextually informed with a focus on North-West Pakistan, this book will be of interest to academics researching South Asian Studies, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, terrorism, and traditional justice and restorative forms of peace-making.

Terror and War

Terror and War
Author: Kieran Jackel
Publisher: Australian Self Publishing Group
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2021-06-01
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 1922618284

Terror and War provides the reader with contemporary insights into military strategy, radicalisation and the challenges associated with countering the rising influence of terrorism. Twenty Essays is a cautionary and timely collection of works given the current intra-state and domestic tensions present within the world. The author has seen operational service on several occasions through Southern Asia, the Middle East and domestically, all of which centred on countering terrorism. This lived experience provides the reader with unique perspectives that complement the analysis of counter terrorism theory and military thinking. The outcome is an immersive and sobering reflection on the challenges facing policy makers and society more broadly.