This book provides a detailed examination of the compound crisis between India and Pakistan that brought the region to the brink of a nuclear war in 1990. Placing the crisis in the context of concurrent international events such as the fall of the Soviet Union, the authors draw out the lesson for present-day South Asian affairs. The book also makes a significant contribution to the debates on the role of nuclear weapons, confidence and security building strategies and the place of ethnicity in contemporary international relations.

This book provides a detailed examination of the compound crisis between India and Pakistan that brought the region to the brink of a nuclear war in 1990. Placing the crisis in the context of concurrent international events such as the fall of the Soviet Union, the authors draw out the lesson for present-day South Asian affairs. The book also makes a significant contribution to the debates on the role of nuclear weapons, confidence and security building strategies and the place of ethnicity in contemporary international relations.

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India and Pakistan, nuclear neighbors and rivals, fought the last of three major wars in 1971. Far from peaceful, however, the period since then has been "one long crisis, punctuated by periods of peace." The long-disputed Kashmir issue continues to be both a cause and consequence of India-Pakistan hostility. Four Crises and a Peace Process focuses on four contained conflicts on the subcontinent: the Brasstacks Crisis of 1986?1987, the Compound Crisis of 1990, the Kargil Conflict of 1999, and the Border Confrontation of 2001?2002. Authors P.R. Chari, Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, and Brookings senior fellow Stephen P. Cohen explain the underlying causes of these crises, their consequences, the lessons that can be learned, and the American role in each. The four crises are notable because any one of them could have escalated to a large-scale conflict, or even all-out war, and three took place after India and Pakistan had gone nuclear. Looking for larger trends of peace and conflict in the region, the authors consider these incidents as cases of attempted conflict resolution, as instances of limited war by nuclear-armed nations, and as examples of intervention and engagement by the United States and China. They analyze the reactions of Indian, Pakistani, and international media and assess the two countries' decision-making processes. Fo "ur Crises and a Peace Process e"xplains how these crises have affected regional and international policy and evaluates the prospects for lasting peace in South Asia.

"The distinguished Pakistani scholar, . . . provides a work that invites comparison with the Turkish situation since before World War II."
--" The Journal of Military History"

"The study sheds light on three domestic pressures facing Pakistan: militarization, secularization, and Islamic fundamentalism."
--"Middle East Journal"

To the north an extended civil war in Afghanistan fuelled by arms from Russia and the US. To the west a fundamentalist Islamic region in Iran with links to international terrorism. To the northeast a secessionist guerilla war in Kashmir. To the east, India, with which Pakistan has fought two wars in forty years. In these volatile circumstances, Pakistan's armed forces continue to play an important role both internally and externally.

Since their creation out of the communal violence of partition at the end of WWII, the armed forces of Pakistan have played a central role in the Pakistan state, periodically usurping the civil authority and ruling in its own right. The Armed Forces of Pakistan describes the nature of Pakistan's defense capabilities and the forces which will shape them in the twenty-first century. It surveys the forces locked in conflict over the nuclear option and examines the three internal pressures Pakistan continues to face--militarization, secularization, and Islamic fundamentalism.