Atlantic Council

The Pakistan-India relationship is one of the most important relationships in the world, but understanding the internal dynamics of each country remains a crucial prerequisite to resolving the conflicts that persist between the two countries. On July 14, the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center hosted media analyst and former minister Javed Jabbar for a discussion  of this topic. Mr. Jabbar identified several issue areas where comparisons between the domestic politics of each country could be made: entity and identity, flexibility and rigidity, power and authority, and issues and interests. India and Pakistan are both evolving as nations, and both face challenges in the areas of poverty, women’s rights, terrorism, prisoners, water security, and nuclear issues. Both states differ in their handling of politics and religion, and they have had different experiences with democracy and military rule.

The barrier that stands between improved India-Pakistan relations is often called the “trust deficit,” but it would be better defined as a state of “mutual incomprehension.” The two countries do not understand one another, and there exists an unwillingness in civil society to reexamine the myths and tensions that stand in the way of cooperation on shared policy concerns. Competitiveness and even combativeness are endemic to the rivalry between these two states, but this dynamic tension could be used to foster competitive cooperation with a positive outcome. 

Mr. Jabbar offered a number of solutions to the challenges he discussed: maintain a bilateral dialogue, especially during crises; hold more frequent summit meetings; continue the backchannel and Track II processes; develop a “Track III” dialogue through civil society; organize a political leadership conference; improve trade relations; find common ground on ecology issues such as water, climate, etc.; and utilize the joint anti-terrorism mechanism. The question and answer session covered such topics as the role of economics and the private sector in Track II as well as the Kashmir issue. Mr. Jabbar was also challenged on some of his assertions about Pakistan, for example, that the Pakistani text books did not contain any bias towards India.