Overview

While several books have examined the security challenges faced by India and Pakistan in isolation as well as the strategies they have each adopted in response, Subcontinent Adrift places the two sets of clashing outlooks, policies, and strategies together and analyzes the causes and consequences of the drift in South Asia. Subcontinent Adrift maps out and explains India and Pakistan's respective interests, motivations, and long-term objectives from a contemporary perspective. Much has happened in the intervening period since the nuclear tests in 1998 that has shaped the rivalry between these two countries, including advances in their strategic capabilities, domestic political shifts, and changes in the global balance of power. Hence the book considers to what extent the ""drifting"" Subcontinent is affecting the political, military, and economic dynamics on the international stage and causing a ""global drift""-described by Chester Crocker as a ""disorderly mixture of turbulence and drift in relationships among the leading powers and key regional states."" This study identifies the latent and emergent drivers behind the mounting acrimony in South Asia-notably, India's ambitions as a ""rising power"" coupled with the resurgence of China and Pakistan's strategic anxiety as the United States unmoors itself from Afghanistan and embraces India. India is similarly concerned as China advances its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) across the region, developing a network of economic and strategic hubs and bringing India's neighbors into China's embrace through its strategy of peripheral diplomacy. Countries in the region are attracted by the new opportunities offered through the BRI, which in turn undercuts India's national objectives and provides new incentives for Pakistan to balance against India. Khan elucidates the intricacies of such external drivers vis-à-vis the internal factors of both countries and their ramifications in various scenarios. Subcontinent Adrift will be a valuable addition to the fields of international relations, security studies, and Asian studies. This book is in the Rapid Communications in Conflict and Security Series (General Editor: Dr. Geoffrey R.H. Burn).

Full Product Details

9781638570639

Table of Contents

Reviews

Subcontinent Adrift provides a comprehensive account of the India-Pakistan competition after 75 years of independence, three bloody wars, and numerous near-miss nuclear crises. Professor Feroz Khan, former Director in Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, gives us a vivid account of the region's tragic history, the domestic and international roots of rivalry, a spiraling nuclear arms race, and the many failed bids for peace and normalization. He offers a compassionate and lucid analysis of South Asia's past and present and valuable insights into South Asia's possible futures, ranging from the reassuring to the outright terrifying. -Peter Lavoy, former Senior Director for South Asia, National Security Council The Indo-Pakistani rivalry has receded in international consciousness in recent years-sometimes for good reason. But the underlying sources of instability persist. Feroz Khan's sympathetic survey of this competition aptly highlights why the quest for a lasting peace cannot be neglected any longer. -Ashley J. Tellis, Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace On the heels of his masterly account of the growth of Pakistan as a nuclear weapons state, Eating Grass, Feroz Khan turns to explaining the strategic imbalance in South Asia that feeds the unending hostility between India and Pakistan. In this compact and compelling analysis, he illustrates the historical and militaristic thinking on both sides that feeds enmity while hobbling the ability of both countries to achieve internal and external peace and development. Khan's cogent new book should be seen as a warning that armed conflict or use of terrorist proxies will not solve the problems facing the teeming millions in South Asia-they will only exacerbate them. -Shuja Nawaz, Distinguished Fellow, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council This is an important volume on the India-Pakistan rivalry by a veteran scholar-practitioner on South Asian security issues and comes as the two countries celebrate 75 years of independence. It takes a historical overview of their rivalry with a comprehensive discussion of the evolution of their military strategies, situating it in the domestic and international political contexts. Professor Feroz Khan brings decades of experience as a senior military officer and as a highly respected academic expert to give well-considered projections of various strategic futures. For scholars, policy professionals, and students, this book provides a rich and timely perspective on the subcontinental dyad. -Sharad Joshi, Associate Professor, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey A must read from Feroz Khan on the continuing simmering security dangers in South Asia and their impact on the rest of the world. Khan lays out a sensible path toward a 'good' future but then laments that a 'bad' or 'ugly' future is more likely given the breakdown in India-Pakistan relations. -Siegfried S. Hecker, Professor and Senior Fellow, CISAC and FSI, Stanford University It didn't have to be this way-two nuclear armed neighbors constantly at each other's throats, drifting from one crisis to another, barely speaking, locked in perpetual struggle. Yet India and Pakistan share so much in common, including shared history, geography, and culture. What happened? Feroz Khan captures the deeply tragic nature of India-Pakistan relations that lead them on such different paths, one a chaotic democracy on the road to becoming a global power, the other a society still struggling to find its place in the sun. This book explains how South Asia arrived at its current circumstances, and how a better future might be possible. -Zachary S. Davis, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Security Research, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available