INDIA-PAKISTAN PEACE PROCESS: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

This article reviews the India–Pakistan peace process in the 2000s, focusing on the interplay between formal dialogues and quiet back-channels. It catalogues advances on trade, travel across the Line of Control and people-to-people contacts, while analysing the structural impediments posed by crises, terrorism and veto players in civil–military relations. The paper discusses sequencing approaches that separate humanitarian and economic measures from core territorial disputes, and evaluates whether incremental confidence-building can accumulate into political capital resilient to shocks. It argues that sustained engagement requires institutionalised crisis-management, credible accountability on terrorism, and domestic consensus that reframes peace as a national interest rather than a partisan gambit. The article concludes with a pragmatic agenda to protect gains when the process is disrupted.

The main body traces dialogues from the Composite Dialogue framework to specific CBMs—bus services, cross-LoC trade and military hotlines—assessing utilisation and bottlenecks at the border. Section One examines the role of back-channel envoys and how plausible outlines on Jammu & Kashmir autonomy, demilitarisation and joint mechanisms emerged before being derailed by political turnover and exogenous shocks. Section Two analyses domestic veto players: party politics, media ecosystems and security establishments, and how their incentives shape negotiating space. Section Three explores trade normalization, sensitive lists and non-tariff barriers, arguing that logistics facilitation and digitised customs could deliver quick wins. Section Four proposes a crisis firewall—predrafted de-escalation steps, information-sharing on investigations, and third-party technical monitoring—to prevent incident spirals. The conclusion recommends a “protect and expand” strategy: institutional memory in joint secretariats, sunset-proof CBMs embedded in regulations, and constituency-building via visa reforms and cultural exchanges to socialise peace.