Pakistan's Kashmir policy and strategy since 1947

Abstract

This thesis analyzes Pakistan's Kashmir policy and strategy since 1947. Pakistan has sought to obtain the accession of Kashmir for over fifty years. This policy has its origins in Pakistan's struggle for a separate state for South Asia's Muslims, its belief that India never accepted Pakistan's existence, and Pakistan's domestic cleavages and institutional weaknesses. Because these beliefs and characteristics remain today, Pakistan is unlikely to drop its claim to Kashmir. Pakistan's strategy to achieve its objectives has included diplomacy, war, and proxy war. This thesis explores how internal and external variables have impacted Pakistan's methods and what this means for the current effort to end the proxy war in Kashmir. Although Pakistan is unlikely to abandon its claims to Kashmir, an analysis of Pakistan's shift from diplomacy to war in 1965 and from diplomacy to proxy war in 1990 demonstrates that Pakistan's strategy responds to external constraints and opportunities. The United States may not be able to end the dispute over Kashmir by pressuring Pakistan to drop its claims, but Washington retains sufficient influence to persuade Pakistan to use a peaceful strategy to pursue its claims to Kashmir.