Strategic Drift in Southern Asia

Abstract:Strategic Stability at the trijunction of China- India- Pakistan remains in a tenuous state where strategic risks in the nuclear triangle are increasing. The two dyads (China- India; Pakistan- India) have endured conflicts over ideology, territorial claims, and power rivalry, though each state has both nested security dilemmas, common aspirations and a history of cooperative security agreements. Prof. Feroz Khan examines in depth the conundrum challenges and strategic futures of the region in his new book, Subcontinent Adrift: Strategic Futures of South Asia (New York: Cambria Press 2022). Mr. Khan argues that while China- India is a managed rivalry, the India- Pakistan rivalry is much more complex, unpredictable, and dangerously skirts around escalating wars with nuclear weapons in the midst. He examines the good, bad, and ugly strategic futures of the region in times of disorderly mixture of turbulence and drift in relationships among major powers and key nuclear armed regional states.

Bio: Feroz Hassan Khan is a former Brigadier in the Pakistan Army, with experience in combat action and command on active fronts on the Line of Control in Kashmir and Siachin Glacier and Afghanistan border. He has worked on numerous assignments in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He served as Director Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs, in the Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, Joint Services Headquarters. Mr. Khan had been a key contributor in formulating Pakistan's security policies on nuclear and conventional arms control and strategic stability in South Asia. He produced recommendations for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and represented Pakistan in several multilateral and bilateral arms control negotiations on peace and security in South Asia and international treaties related to weapons of mass destruction.