India & Pakistan Pathways Ahead

Kapil Kak

India-Pakistan relations are at a historic juncture. This new found warmth, more than mere ‘cold peace’ something that has traditionally characterised the relationship between the two countries has started manifesting in an urge to engage the other country with a positive frame of mind, explore the finer aspects of the other, and impelled an unprecedented popular momentum generated by the expectations of ordinary Indians and Pakistanis. The leadership in both India and Pakistan has not just accepted that they are willing to go beyond their stated positions, but have realised that the welfare of the other is essential to their own. The people of Jammu and Kashmir are also undergoing an attitudinal metamorphosis towards realism and the imperatives of peace, stability and prosperity.

Still, much remains unchanged. Mindsets, suspicion, terror tactics and political compulsions created by age-old ‘nationalist’ rhetoric remain potential wild cards in the ongoing process towards positive peace. Thus, much of the challenging journey still lies ahead.

This volume is an attempt to capture these diverse readings and views, analyse the prospects of peace and the potential wild cards, and present these before a discerning audience.

Kapil Kak Amitabh Mattoo is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu. He is also Professor of International Relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Professor Mattoo has been a member of the Standing Committee of the Association of Indian Universities; was member of the Governing Council of the Nuclear Science Centre; was a member of India's National Security Council's Advisory Board, and was also a member of the Task Force constituted by the Indian Prime Minister on Global Strategic Developments. He has been visiting Professor at Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has authored many books and articles on International Relations and Foreign Policy.
Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak AVSM VSM (Retd), formerly of the flying branch of the Air Force, is a well-known defence and security affairs analyst who earlier served as Deputy Director of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. He also did a 4-year stint as Advisor (Strategic Studies), University of Jammu, and is currently Additional Director, Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi.
Happymon Jacob teaches Strategic Studies at the Department of Strategic and Regional Studies, University of Jammu. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi. Jacob is the Coordinator of the Pugwash Kashmir Initiative, and has been associated with the Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Air Power Studies and the Delhi Policy Group. Jacob's publications include HIV/AIDS as a Security Threat to India (Manohar, 2005) and The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of the Taliban (Observer Research Foundation, 2005).