ABSTRACT
The Indo-Pakistani antagonism dates from the 1947 to 1948 war that accompanied the origins of the two states, which erupted when the Hindu ruler of the predominantly Islamic princely state of Jammu and Kashmir opted to join India rather than Pakistan. Both Indian and Pakistani forces went on full alert, and India brought in its Bofors guns to shell the intruders while the Indian air force launched strikes to dislodge them. Although Pakistan insisted only independent local fighters without ties to the Pakistani military were involved, severe fighting continued through May and June, incurring over a thousand casualties. The world is faced with a new and quite different balance of power. Whereas the superpower rivalry was bipolar and comprehensive, tending to cleave the world into two relatively comprehensive rival alliance networks, the Indo-Pakistan confrontation postdates the Cold War from which it derives and is an asymmetrical, regional one.
