This article revisits the Kashmir dispute by examining the interactions between language, religion and political dynamics to show how, in the post-1947 struggle, Kashmir's identity has increasingly been folded into the Indian and Pakistani language of a zero-sum conflict and nationalistic self-assertion. Paradoxically, Kashmir's position has weakened within a plural India even though Kashmir validates New Delhi's claim to religious and cultural heterogeneity. In Pakistan, Kashmir's diversity is dismissed because it disrupts Pakistan's unitary national identity centred on Islam and Urdu. By deliberately treating Kashmir as a homogenous Islamic entity, Pakistan seeks to attain legitimacy for its national imaginary as a pure Islamic state. Consequently, the capacity for Kashmir to actualise its own identity has diminished as it has been rendered hostage to the feuding of two behemoth imagined communities'.
The ongoing international military withdrawal from Afghanistan has set the stage for energising the activities of Afghanistan's external stakeholders to re-evaluate their activities. The possible return of the Taliban in some form could compel Afghanistan's current external partners—Iran, India and Russia—to turn into limited spoilers. The absence of an international guarantor in Afghanistan from December 2014 is likely to encourage Pakistan—a greedy spoiler—to intensify its meddling as a means to reposition the Taliban—a total spoiler—at the helm of Afghan affairs. The combination of limited, greedy and total spoilers threatens to undermine security and state-building processes.
The ongoing international military withdrawal from Afghanistan has set the stage for energising the activities of Afghanistan's external stakeholders to re-evaluate their activities. The possible return of the Taliban in some form could compel Afghanistan's current external partners—Iran, India and Russia—to turn into limited spoilers. The absence of an international guarantor in Afghanistan from December 2014 is likely to encourage Pakistan—a greedy spoiler—to intensify its meddling as a means to reposition the Taliban—a total spoiler—at the helm of Afghan affairs. The combination of limited, greedy and total spoilers threatens to undermine security and state-building processes.
"After decades of turmoil a new phase is opening up for Afghanistan, in which a new generation comes to the fore as many of the key players from earlier phases, including foreign interventionist powers, leave the scene. Although this new phase offers new possibilities and increased hope for Afghanistan's future, the huge problems created in earlier phases remain. This book presents a comprehensive overall assessment of the current state of politics and society in Afghanistan, outlining the difficulties and discussing the future possibilities. Many of the contributors are Afghans or Afghan insiders, who are able to put forward a much richer view of the situation than outside foreign observers."--Provided by publisher.
Following the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, the United States and Afghan governments have sought, with little success, to resolve Afghanistan's regional problems through a political framework intended to knit the region together. This thesis investigates the reasons why a regional solution to the conflict in Afghanistan has not gained traction.Traditional understandings of the security dilemma are conceptually refined, operationally expanded and thematically analysed. Conceptually, a distinction is drawn between genuine security dilemmas, involving benign actors, and strategic challenges, involving actors with malign intent. Operationally, bilateral formulations of the security dilemma are expanded to demonstrate the occurrence of multiple interlocking security dilemmas. Thematically, a case study method is used to explore these security conditions in terms of the structural, contextual and cognitive dynamics impeding regional cooperation. Three findings emerge.First, Afghan leaders and their backers have failed to address key structural impediments, such as competing notions of security and regional stability, rival strategic interests and opposing power ambitions. The Afghan Taliban's absolute goals, Pakistan's malign orientation, and Saudi Arabia's anti-Iranian and Salafist ideology have proved most debilitating.Second, the metastases of Southwest Asia's unresolved contextual reality tax an already rickety mechanism. The legacy of fraught historical relations, territorial disputes, state and non-state spoilers, armed conflict, and the effects of the Indian-Pakistani nuclear deterrent taints the politico-social environment, stymieing efforts to allay entrenched suspicions.Third, advocates of a regional strategy have failed to consider fully how to reshape or moderate the cognitive perceptions of actors. High levels of fear (whether real or imagined), perverse enemy images, trust deficits and uncertainty arising from military postures exacerbate the challenge faced by those seeking an end to the conflict.The thesis concludes that a regional solution seems unlikely. Afghanistan remains trapped in a web of interlocking security dilemmas and strategic challenges, each complicated by structural, contextual and cognitive factors. A better approach would be to strengthen Afghanistan through state-building and to focus diplomatic efforts on persuading or pressuring regional states to resolve their tensions bilaterally.
