ABSTRACT
The eighteen months preceding the 1990 crisis were an astonishingly dramatic period in contemporary history. Immediately following the crisis studied here, Iraq invaded Kuwait (on August 2, 1990), and the Gulf War began four months later on January 15, 1991. Further, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Warsaw Pact unraveled and several other important events took place. For most non-specialists, the 1990 crisis appeared to be a tiny eruption during a period when more significant developments were taking place elsewhere. It was not until 1993, and the publication of Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article, that the larger international community came to view 1990 as a significant event. This chapter will briefly survey the global strategic milieu of 1989-90 and its direct and indirect impact on South Asia.1
