Nikhil Hooda asked: What does Pakistan stand to gain by internationalising Kashmir issue?

Priyanka Singh replies: Since partition, the Kashmir issue has dominated the discourse concerning India-Pakistan relations. The divisive Cold War politics which coincided with the years after 1947, and Pakistan’s chosen allegiance towards the West, initially helped Pakistan garner considerable support on the Kashmir issue at international forums like the United Nations. On the other hand, India preferred to purse an independent course by not aligning with the either bloc. In the early years, India’s inability to put across its stand on Kashmir emphatically before the international community was mainly due to such unfavourable Cold War dynamics. Over the years, it strengthened Pakistan’s belief that involving the international community would add substance to its otherwise weak and irrational claim on the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

In the post-Cold War era, the international support to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue has only declined in view of various geopolitical and economic transformations. With militancy in J&K subsiding, and Pakistan left exposed before the world as the hub of militancy targeted against India, Pakistan has become wary of the Kashmir issue losing its relevance. It is, therefore, trying and making desperate efforts to once again bring the Kashmir issue to the forefront. Involving the international community, Pakistan believes, would proffer support to its unfounded claim on J&K, as has happened in the past, and at the same time put India on the defensive.

Pakistan has consistently failed to understand that the international politics is not the same as it used to be in the Cold War period. Strategic realignments have propelled the West including the United States to develop proximity with India and hence made them more sensitive towards India’s stated position on Kashmir.

Posted on November 13, 2014