Book Review: Sumit Ganguly, Deadly Impasse Kashmir and Indo Pakistan Relations at the Dawn of a New Century
| Published date | 01 June 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0973598416657972 |
| Author | Somali Mukherjee |
| Date | 01 June 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Sumit Ganguly, Deadly Impasse Kashmir and Indo Pakistan Relations at the
Dawn of a New Century. Cambridge University Press, 2016, ISBN: 978-0-
521-12568-0 (Paperback).
The book Deadly Impasse Kashmir and Indo Pakistan Relations at the
Dawn of a New Century is the newest book published by Sumit Ganguly
a renowned scholar of South Asian studies who at present holds the
Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana
University, Bloomington. The book has seven crisp chapters studying the
myriad aspects of the Indo-Pak relations apart from a short write up on
‘In lieu of an epilogue’ and appendices, references, maps etc.
The book focuses on Indo-Pakistani relations between 1999 and 2009
and attempts to address a critical question: does the security dilemma
(the spiral model) or the deterrence model best describe the relationship?
The author laments that the available literature on the subject is either
descriptive or historical in nature and very few attempts have been made
to examine the rivalry theoretically, and he attempts to remedy the same.
At the outset the author explores the origin of the three Indo-Pakistani
wars and says after the decisive defeat of Pakistan in the third Indo-
Pakistani war the region has witnessed cold peace.
In the first chapter, ‘The Rivalry Revisited’, he says after the abrupt
end of Gen Zia’s reign, there was a fresh spurt of hope in the direction of
improving the relation between two nations, especially when Benazir
Bhutto assumed office. However, the hope was dashed soon due to the
hostility of the Pakistani security establishment. As to the present possi-
bilities of a crisis, while some argue nuclear deterrence may well prevent
the outbreak of a major conflict, others argue that a possibility of war is
greater, as Pakistan a revisionist state, believes it can provoke India a
Jadavpur Journal of
International Relations
20(1) 125–132
2016 Jadavpur University
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0973598416657972
http://jnr.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial