Indo-Pak Rivalry in the Age of Globalization: Regional Tensions in a Globalized Order

Abstract

This paper investigates the tenacity of the Indo-Pak conflict in an ever-growing globalized environment wherein economic globalization and transnational connectivity continue to exist alongside traditional political and territorial struggles. Although the globalization paradigm of a pacifying role, by offering trade, diplomatic interactions, and propagating normative values, implies a facilitative relationship between interstate tensions, the India- Pakistan conflict is still determined by post-colonial fissures, nationalist causes, and strategic anxieties. In that regard, the question that is asked is as follows: How has globalization transformed the dynamics of the Indo-Pak tensions in the twenty-first century? The analysis, based on a qualitative approach based on the foundations of scholarly literature, policy discourse, and recent case studies of the terrorist attacks in India, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, shows that globalization has both created new venues of dialogue and brought new issues, including the emergence of digital propaganda, increased securitization processes, and an increase in the competition of power between countries. The empirical evidence therefore suggests that sustainable peace is a possibility that is conditional upon a shift in the direction of inclusive regionalism and demilitarized discourses, as well as economic cooperation based on mutual development rather than on hostile nationalism.