Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum - Hardcover

Stephen P. Cohen

3.78

63 ratings by Goodreads

9780815721864: Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815721862 ISBN 13: 9780815721864

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2013

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The rivalry between India and Pakistan has proven to be one of the world's most intractable international conflicts, ever since 1947 when the British botched their departure from the South Asian subcontinent. And the enmity is likely to continue for another thirty-five years, reaching the century mark. This has critical implications for both countries and the rest of the world. Renowned South Asia expert Stephen P. Cohen explains why he expects this rivalry to continue in this first comprehensive survey of the deep historical, cultural, and strategic differences that underpin the hostility. In recent years the stakes have increased as India and Pakistan have each acquired a hundred or more nuclear weapons, blundered into several serious crises, and become victims of terrorism, some of it from across their borders. America is puzzled by the problem of dealing with a rising India and a struggling Pakistan, and Cohen offers a fresh approach for U.S. policy in dealing with these two powers. Drawing on his rich experience in South Asia to explore the character, depth, and origin of Indian and Pakistani attitudes toward each other, Cohen develops a comprehensive theory of why the dispute between New Delhi and Islamabad is likely to persist. He also describes the terrible cost of this animosity for the citizens of India and Pakistan, including the region's high levels of violence and low level of economic integration. On a more hopeful note, however, he goes on to suggest developments that could ameliorate the tension, including a more active role for the UnitedStates in addressing a range of issues that divide the nations. Kashmir is one of these issues, but as much a consequence as a cause of the rivalry. Can India and Pakistan resolve their many territorial and identity issues? Perhaps the best they can expect in the near term is a limited degree of normalization, including bottom-up ideas generated by the peace and business communities, as well as a realistic assessmen

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Product Description:

The India-Pakistan rivalry is one of the five percent of international conflicts that have been labeled as intractable. In thirty-five years this armed standoff will be a century old, and the chances of realizing that dubious anniversary seem quite good. The rivalry is one reason why South Asia remains the least-integrated region in the world. Despite recent steps toward normalization, the future could be as unpromising as the last sixty-five years.
'Shooting for a Century' is the first comprehensive survey of the deep historical, cultural, and strategic differences that make it probable this conflict will endure, despite many efforts by the international community to resolve it. Stephen Cohen develops a comprehensive theory of why the dispute is intractable and suggests ways in which it may be ameliorated. He draws on his rich and varied experiences in South Asia in exploring the character, depth, and origin of Indian and Pakistani attitudes toward each other. He proffers ways in which the tensions might be ameliorated, including a more active role for the United States on a range of issues that divide the nations.
In the past fifteen years the stakes have become higher for both countries: each has acquired nuclear weapons and had multiple crises, and Pakistan has shown signs of failure. Ironically, India is booming, but the time for normalization may not have come yet, and there are groups on both sides that would oppose it.

Can the two states resolve the many territorial and identity issues that divide them? Are there possibilities for their cooperation on one level, even if antagonisms remain? Should normalization from the bottom up be encouraged, or do they have to agree on resolving strategic conflicts first? Cohen provides an authoritative and instructive examination of these and similarly important topics.

Review:

"The approach...is fresh and the treatment forthright: both worth noting in a scholar-practitioner whose 50-year career of writing on India and Pakistan might have left him with little new to say about bridging the divide between the two countries. That Cohen is able to take up the challenge stems from his frank admission that the 'full normalization' of relations between India and Pakistan is unlikely for at least another generation: they could still be shooting at each other a century after partition."--International Affairs

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