SOAS Research Online

A Free Database of the Latest Research by SOAS Academics and PhD Students

[skip to content]

Paliwal, Avinash (2019) 'A Cautious Balance - Explaining India’s Approach towards Afghanistan’s Peace Process.' Asian Security, 16 (2). pp. 263-280.

[img]
Preview
Text - Accepted Version
Download (345kB) | Preview

Abstract

The US president Donald Trump pitched India’s participation as being central to his Afghanistan policy in 2017. Yet, as the US has sought a negotiated settlement with the Afghan Taliban, there is little clarity on how India seeks to deal with its increasing isolation in Afghanistan. This article focuses on India’s response toward the peace talks of 2015 and 2018/19 and investigates why its position changed. In 2015, New Delhi viewed Kabul’s outreach to Pakistan as a “tilt” harmful to India’s strategic interests; in 2018/19, India sought international support for Kabul to enter dialog without preconditions. The article argues that India seeks to ensure an ongoing strategic balance between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The source of such contrasting responses to the two peace talks, then, lies in India’s perception of and confidence in the US’ approach toward Afghanistan, and the changing landscape of Afghan domestic politics.

Item Type: Journal Article
SOAS Departments & Centres: Departments and Subunits > Interdisciplinary Studies > Centre for International Studies & Diplomacy
Subjects: J Political Science > JZ International relations
ISSN: 15552764
Copyright Statement: © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Asian Security on 16 Sep 2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14799855.2019.1665515
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.1080/14799855.2019.1665515
Date Deposited: 16 Sep 2019 07:49
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/31562

Altmetric Data

Statistics

Download activity - last 12 monthsShow export options
Downloads since deposit
6 month trend
178Downloads
6 month trend
252Hits
Accesses by country - last 12 monthsShow export options
Accesses by referrer - last 12 monthsShow export options

Repository staff only

Edit Item Edit Item