Introduction∗ This chapter argues that the long-running dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, understood conventionally to be a confl ict over territorial possession, has in recent years shown multiple and serious signs of diminished intensity. The two sides have shown an increasing propensity to negotiate agreements that are slowly, steadily, and very likely permanently, draining the dispute of its traditionally intractable character. Although the Kashmir dispute is yet far from a resolution in the formal sense, it has already lost most of its centrality in India-Pakistan relations. For all intents and purposes, it has arrived at a de facto settlement.