Presenting a completely new perspective on the Kashmir conflict, this book argues that resolving the situation can be brought about through a `peace strategy' rather than a `war strategy'. Through an analysis of the conflicts in Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka and Palestine, the author draws parallels between the India-Pakistan conflict. He also presents reasons why a durable peace - based on the Line of Control becoming the settled border and the two parts of Jammu and Kashmir being given parallel and substantial autonomy - can be achieved in today's conditions. The book concludes that peace between India and Pakistan is possible based on political realism and that strategic solutions that safeguard the interests of both countries are available.

In 2002, nuclear-armed adversaries India and Pakistan mobilized for war over the long-disputed territory of Kashmir, sparking panic around the world. Drawing on extensive firsthand experience in the contested region, Sumantra Bose reveals how the conflict became a grave threat to South Asia and the world and suggests feasible steps toward peace. Though the roots of conflict lie in the end of empire and the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, the contemporary problem owes more to subsequent developments, particularly the severe authoritarianism of Indian rule. Deadly dimensions have been added since 1990 with the rise of a Kashmiri independence movement and guerrilla war waged by Islamist groups. Bose explains the intricate mix of regional, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and caste communities that populate Kashmir, and emphasizes that a viable framework for peace must take into account the sovereignty concerns of India and Pakistan and popular aspirations to self-rule as well as conflicting loyalties within Kashmir. He calls for the establishment of inclusive, representative political structures in Indian Kashmir, and cross-border links between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir. Bose also invokes compelling comparisons to other cases, particularly the peace-building framework in Northern Ireland, which offers important lessons for a settlement in Kashmir. The Western world has not fully appreciated the desperate tragedy of Kashmir: between 1989 and 2003 violence claimed up to 80,000 lives. Informative, balanced, and accessible, Kashmir is vital reading for anyone wishing to understand one of the world's most dangerous conflicts.

Breaking away from the nationalist rhetoric of India and Pakistan, Sumantra Bose locates this study of Kashmir within a comparative perspective on problems of self-determination and democratic conflict resolution.

Solving Kashmir is a treatise on the Kashmir imbroglio that gives a deep insight into the myriad facets of the dispute in the State of JandK. It brings into focus the historical perspective, the geo-strategic and geo-political imperatives, as also the interests of the world powers and other regional players especially Pakistan and to an extent China. This vital piece of real estate located in the under belly of the CARS and Russia gives access to Tibet, Afghanistan and Pakistan. JandK is strategically significant to India's existence as a nation. Historically, Kashmir has been an important gateway for marauders entering the country. Losing control of JandK would open up the floodgates again. Kashmir gives India access to the strategically significant countries around JandK. It is our jewel in the crown. The main players in the dispute namely, India and Pakistan have gone to war four times over the issue with Pakistan enduring humiliating defeats, including its partition with the creation of Bangladesh. Having failed in its conventional attempts to wrest Kashmir and still in search of its identity, Pakistan has exercised the low cost/ no cost proxy war option, exploiting the ethnic and religious sentiments of the local Kashmiris, as also drumming up support from religious fundamentalists internationally. The nuclear dimension adding to the tinder box forces the international community of nations to concentrate efforts to bring the two nations to the negotiating table and resolve the problem bilaterally in accordance with the Shimla Agreement, however, with no significant success. How long will India continue to bleed? and "Where do you go from here?" are questions that willcontinue to haunt India for years to come.