Guest Column | The Peace Primer

General Jehangir Karamat (retd)

The primacy of the United States was never in doubt in the post-Cold War world. After Afghanistan and Iraq, the unipolarity of the world and the vast superiority of the United States in all the elements of national power have been sharply emphasised. The United States is not likely to have a rival in the foreseeable future.

For South Asian countries, like the rest of the world, the message is clear: conform to international control regimes and cooperate with the United States in addressing its concerns otherwise your sovereignty will not be respected. There is a scramble to forge long term strategic relationships with the United States.

For India this has meant a realignment in its relationship with the United States that started soon after the Kargil episode and a tacit acceptance of the United States as a facilitator in Indo-Pakistan bilateral relations. Indian efforts are helped by the relationship with Israel and the war on terror as well as by the lobbying efforts of the Indian-American community.

For Pakistan it has meant a change in policy in Afghanistan that was already being considered when 9/11 made it imperative and a falling back on its old allied and cooperative status with the United States. For both, India and Pakistan, the cost of protracted conflict and the economic, political and social benefits of peace have been starkly highlighted.

Both India and Pakistan must now look inwards to consolidate politically and economically. The priority has to shift to poverty alleviation and to the large numbers of the socially excluded in their growing populations. India, as a sovereign country, has every right to arm itself but to Pakistan, India’s military build-up plans seem non-threat oriented and, therefore, a bid to establish overwhelming strategic superiority.

Understanding the futility of an arms race Pakistan seeks selective up-gradation in all spheres to ensure that its deterrence remains credible and its determination, not to compromise, never wavers. A restraint regime can be established