Role of Military in Conflict and Conflict Resolution: A Case Study of India and Pakistan

Abstract

Due to its omnipresent nature, national interest of states often clash and conflict erupts. Conflict can be resolved through peaceful means (negotiation, mediation, arbitration and adjudication) or coercive means (use of force). But due to shifting balance of power coercive means become a necessary requisite to further a state policy. Due to incompatible positions, states often exert their will to further their interests through the use of military power. Hence, military acts a tool of not only initiating conflict but a factor of conflict resolution as well as is apparent in the case of India and Pakistan where both states while trying to maintain their sovereign positions employed military means to resolve their mutual clashes. Since Pakistan’s birth out of the bloody partition of British India, its history has been punctuated by an overarching influence of its military. The grave fault lines between the military and civilian leadership in Pakistan led to the emergence of military as the sole guardian of state interests thereby overruling civil leadership of the state by intervening in policy making and justifying its influence. This paper aimed at to analyze the role of military in exacerbating conflict and resolve conflicts. The descriptive analysis reveals that the organizational structures and relationship between these countries are influenced by the military. Moreover, notable events since 1947 have been elaborated by implying content analysis.