The Security of South Asia edited by Stephen Cohen presents a thought-provoking perspective contributed to by some of the principal commentators in the field, as they look ahead to the subcontinent’s future and examine the implications for the rest of the world.
There are some initial difficulties that must be voiced. This book was completed in mid-85, and is based on a Seminar held, I believe, a year earlier in the United States of America. This gathering had been organized by the Regional Security Project of the Programme on Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security, of the University of Illinois, with assistance from the Ford Foundation, Office of Public Diplomacy of the Department of Defence, U.S.A., The National Strategy and Information Centre and the MacArthur Foundation. Since then, of course, great many changes have taken place: For one, the political change in Delhi; then most significantly, following upon the great thaw of the INF Treaty, the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan.