Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
India will inevitably have to do more in Afghanistan, since the United States will not bear the security burden forever. Any substantive India-U.S. strategic coordination, however, could presage a major change in the regional politics of South Asia.
International calls for bilateral engagement are actually counterproductive because they embolden Pakistan to persist in a fruitless strategy of coercion.
Seventy years after gaining independence, India is poised to consolidate its dominance in South Asia.
While the Trump administration’s efforts to get tough on Pakistan face challenges and potential dangers, the change in stance signals a new political will to pursue previously untried measures which offer some hope of success.
India must its increase its economic diplomacy and security cooperation with Afghanistan while countering the narrative that the success of the revised U.S. policy toward South Asia hinges on Kashmir.
The geopolitical legacies of Partition remain the biggest drag on India’s larger global aspirations. China has benefited from the division and its penetration of the subcontinent is becoming increasingly difficult to counteract.
The tragedy of partition was compounded by the economic division of South Asia, an outcome that did not need to accompany the political separation. India’s efforts at regional economic integration will have implications for both peace and development.
For India and Pakistan, two states with roughly equal amounts of nuclear arsenals, words matter.
The rise of Hindu nationalism in India is transforming Indian Muslims into second class citizens, while the South Asian brand of Islam has lost some autonomy because of growing influence from the Gulf.
The nuclear facility non-attack agreement between India and Pakistan is the most enduring nuclear confidence-building measure on record in South Asia, but it has lost practical utility and should be updated for contemporary circumstances.