Lecture Abstract:

How might the seemingly intractable rivalry between India and Pakistan end? This talk will focus on the role of change-seeking entrepreneurs, on endogenous and exogenous shocks, changes in expectations and on reciprocity and reinforcement as necessary and sufficient conditions for rivalry termination. It will examine both historical cases of termination and future conditions that could prove conducive to ending this enduring rivalry.

About the Speaker:

Sumit Ganguly is Professor of Political Science, holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, and is Director of the Center on American and Global Security at Indiana University, Bloomington. He was also the holder of the Ngee Ann Chair in International Politics at the S. Rajaratnam School for International Studies in 2010. He serves on the editorial boards of the American Political Science Review, Asian Affairs, Asian Security, Asian Survey, Current History, Journal of Democracy, Nonproliferation Review, Pacific Affairs, International Security and Security Studies.

A specialist on the contemporary politics of South Asia, Professor Ganguly is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 20 books on the region. His most recent works are India Since 1980 (with Rahul Mukherji; published by Cambridge University Press), Asian Rivalries: Conflict, Escalation and Limitations on Two-Level Games (with William Thompson; published by Stanford University Press); and How Rivalries End (with William Thompson and Karen Rasler; published by the University of Pennsylvania Press). His latest work, Oxford Short Introduction to Indian Foreign Policy (for Oxford University Press) is under review.He is currently at work on two new books, Deadly Impasse: India-Pakistan Relations at the Dawn of a New Century (Cambridge University Press) and India Ascending (with William Thompson; Columbia University Press).

Organised by IDSS South Asia Programme and RSIS Events Unit.