India’s power grab in Kashmir

08/08/19 • 21 min

Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about India’s decision to revoke Article 370 of its constitution, the provision giving special status to the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, a decision that has sparked a political crisis with Pakistan. The Worldly team explains why Kashmiri autonomy is so sensitive, the ideological reasons why Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to do something so destabilizing and provocative, and what this could mean for the always-volatile India-Pakistan relationship.

Alex has an explainer about India’s Kashmir power grab.

The New Yorker has a good piece on the India-Pakistan partition.

Vox also has an explainer on the violence between Pakistan and India earlier this year.

A part of Article 370 of India’s constitution reads: “[T]he President may, by public notification, declare that this article shall cease to be operative or shall be operative only with such exceptions and modifications and from such date as he may specify.”

India’s home minister said Modi’s government would give Jammu and Kashmir its statehood back once normalcy returned to the area, but also that Modi’s government still lays claim to Pakistan’s part of Kashmir.

People, including Pakistan’s prime minister, are afraid there will be ethnic cleansing.

Pakistan’s army chief said his nation would “go to any extent” to protect Kashmir’s residents, and Imran Khan, the prime minister, warned that a fight could break out.

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Alex has an explainer about India’s Kashmir power grab.

The New Yorker has a good piece on the India-Pakistan partition.

Vox also has an explainer on the violence between Pakistan and India earlier this year.

People, including Pakistan’s prime minister, are afraid there will be ethnic cleansing.

Pakistan’s army chief said his nation would “go to any extent” to protect Kashmir’s residents, and Imran Khan, the prime minister, warned that a fight could break out.

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Previous Episode

Are the US and Turkey heading for a divorce?

Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down the tension between the US and one of its major NATO allies, Turkey. The most recent fight is over Turkey’s purchase of a Russian missile system, but that’s emblematic of a much deeper rift relating to the Turkish government’s drift towards authoritarianism and the two ally’s diametrically opposed policies in Syria. They also then venture some guesses about whether this could get better — but since this is Worldly, you probably know where our hosts are going to come down on that.

Links!

Alex explains the background on the S-400 missile situation.

Turkey’s bid to join NATO was approved in 1951 (though it was technically effective in 1952).

Here’s a diplomatic cable from 1964 on how the Johnson administration’s handling of Cyprus shaped the US-Turkey relationship (wasn’t good!)

Alex’s piece also has a good short explanation on Gulf War tensions between the US and Turkey.

Here’s a Zack piece on the complicated US-Turkey-Kurdish tensions in Syria.

And another Zack piece on Turkey’s conflict with Kurdish separatists inside its borders.

Pastor Andrew Brunson, explained.

And here’s some solid background on how Turkey and Russia are growing closer.

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Next Episode

INF'd

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the recently deceased Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty — a Cold War-era agreement that was supposed to stop the US and Russia from putting destabilizing missiles too close to each other. They explain where the treaty came from, why it mattered, and why Trump pulled out of it — and cap it off with a discussion of whether the treaty’s demise was a good thing or not. Zack does his best (worst?) Yaakov Smirnoff impression, Jenn breaks down the song “99 Red Balloons” at length, and Alex laughs at Mikhail Gorbachev’s jokes.

Alex’s recent INF treaty explainer

US President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev sign the INF in 1987

Here’s the full text of the treaty if you want to read it yourself.

The Worldly hosts prefer this cover of “99 Red Balloons” by Goldfinger, but their producer Byrd maintains that the Nena version is best. Editorial director Liz Nelson, meanwhile, recommends this version from the punk band 7 Seconds.

Zack mentioned that there were several times we came close to nuclear war thanks to misinterpretations or accidents. If you want to know even more, we recommend reading the chilling book Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety.

Here’s more background on the Obama administration’s policy toward the INF treaty and Russia’s apparent violation of it. And here’s then-US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats in November 2018 laying out the evidence the intelligence community has showing that Russia violated the terms of the treaty.

Oh, and here’s Russia’s government denying it did so, and instead accusing the US of having violated the treaty.

Also, more on the “missile gap”

Here is a smart op-ed laying out the case for pulling out of the treaty and building more of these missiles, and here’s a smart op-ed laying out the case against pulling out of the treaty.

Here’s some more background on National Security Adviser John Bolton’s well-known loathing of arms control agreements.

And we mentioned that China recently warned the US that it would take unspecified “countermeasures” if the US were to deploy these missiles near China.

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