Armed Conflict, Peace Audit and Early Warning 2014

This volume addresses three major security aspects in South Asia – armed conflicts, peace audit and early warning. The essays span the entire range of armed conflicts, including inter-state and intra-state actors in the region. An innovative attempt is also made to audit the peace processes in conflict-driven environments since certain areas have witnessed an end to armed conflicts. Addressing the gap between the end of violence and the response to peace, it assesses whether peace processes are fragile in South Asia. The volume further highlights early warning of impending armed conflicts permitting the placement of ameliorative measures for dealing with the situation from a law and order perspective. The role of internal and electoral politics is of special significance here. Topical and up-to-date, the essays address peace processes in Nagaland and Manipur, talks with the Taliban, elections in Nepal, ten years of Indo-Pak cease fire, and the common divide in Jammu and Kashmir, among others.  

D. Suba Chandran is a Director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi. His primary areas of research include Pakistan’s internal security, Afghanistan and Jammu and Kashmir. He is currently working on ‘Indus Water Governance’—a study aimed at improving the process of water governance and addressing the concerns of various sub-regions in the Indus Basin region. He is also working on ‘State Failure in South Asia’, especially focusing on the stability–instability curve, and testing the hypotheses of cyclic failure and functional anarchy. He is the author of Limited War: Revisiting Kargil in Indo-Pak Conflicts (2005), editor or co-editor of several books and articles and has widely published in the regional and national media. He is also an Associate at the Pakistan Study Research Unit (PSRU), University of Bradford, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Pakistan Studies Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. P.R. Chari is Visiting Professor, IPCS. He is a former member of the Indian Administrative Service and has served in several senior positions in the central and state governments. He sought voluntary retirement in 1992 after 32 years in the government. During the course of his official career he served two spells (1971–1975 and 1985–1988) in the Ministry of Defence. He retired from the position of Vice Chairman (Chief Executive) of the Narmada Valley Development Authority.