In early 2007, Indian and Pakistani back-channel interlocutors, appointed by the respective heads of government, were preparing to finalize a secret deal to resolve their dispute over Kashmir. Had the negotiators managed to finalize a deal, the two counties would have signed it in a public ceremony. Such a deal could have brought the decades-long Kashmir conflict to a peaceful end. However, the deal, which was confidentially negotiated in secret third country locations for a period of close to three years, was neither finalized nor signed due to domestic political upheaval in Pakistan. Successive governments in Pakistan tried to continue the negotiations with the Indian government to complete the agreement, but those attempts did not succeed. This was the first time India and Pakistan had engaged in a serious, sustained and structured back-channel negotiation to resolve the most severe conflict between them.
This case study provides deeper insights into the conflict dynamics between India and Pakistan and the progress of the negotiations themselves. Based on original interviews with the participants in the negotiations, this case study seeks to highlight how the political context emerged for the Kashmir negotiations, how political leaders on both sides established the back-channel, how it worked, how negotiators arrived at the agreement, and the circumstances that stopped the final ratification and implementation of the agreement.
ISBN: 978-1-56927-034-9 | Published: 2021