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USA hosts conference on J&K
Aziz Haniffa

Washington, April 29
The Bush Administration has quietly played host to a major conference on Kashmir in what is seen as an attempt to infuse some “new think” into ways of resolving what, it believes, is a potential flashpoint for an India-Pakistan nuclear confrontation.

The conference featured some of the leading academics and policy analysts on the subcontinent from the USA, India and Pakistan. It was hosted by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (I&R) with support from the Policy Planning Bureau. It was off-the-record and no media were invited, and participants scrupulously eschewed letting in on what was discussed.

Senior officials were circumspect when asked if the conference was an indication that the new administration had taken a proactive role on Kashmir. It was significant that not only was the meeting sponsored by the administration, but it flew in many of the participants from India and the UK and from around the USA.

“I think it’s just an opportunity to bring out the ideas on Kashmir again and look and see if there is any new thinking. Get some discussion going and so on,” an official said. The official asserted, “It’s not a starting point for a new policy. It’s just to expose ourselves to the most recent thinking on Kashmir.”

Another official said the rationale behind the conference was “to think out of the box. To let the new people in the administration know what is the issue. To try to think afresh. That was the basic idea.”

The conference was moderated by Walter Anderson, head of the South Asia Division of the I&R, and Steve Ghitelman, also from the same bureau. It was opened and closed with remarks by former U.S. ambassador to India Frank Wisner, currently a vice president with the American International Group — the world’s largest insurance conglomerate.

The conference comprised four panel discussions — India and Pakistani Approaches and Policies; The View from Kashmir; The USA and International Facilitation; and Looking Ahead: Alternative Scenarios.

The first panel discussion on India and Pakistani Approaches and Policies featured Amitabh Mattoo of the Jawaharlal Nehru University; M. Zafar Iqbal Cheema, Oxford University, and former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh Howard Schaffer, now with Georgetown University.

The key questions this panel discussed included: Will India be able to move toward a settlement of Kashmir without engaging Pakistan? In the meantime, what price will India pay to exclude Pakistan from any dialogue it initiates with disaffected Kashmiris? In what ways will a solution advance Pakistani or Indian interests? In what ways does the current impasse — or one very much like it — advance the interests of key interest groups in both countries? Have India or Pakistan’s views on an international role in the Kashmir dispute changed since the Kargil incursion of 1999? Are there any signs that either side is prepared to go beyond previously stated positions?

The second panel on The View from Kashmir featured Joseph Schwartzberg of the University of Minnesota; Farooq Kathwari, CEO of Ethan Allen and sponsor and chief financier of the Kashmir Study Group; Paula Newberg of the United Nations Foundation. This panel too was moderated by Ghitelman. IANS