The India–Pakistan border in Jammu & Kashmir has witnessed repeated ceasefire violations (CFVs) over the past decade. As relations between India and Pakistan have deteriorated, CFVs have increased exponentially. It is imperative to gain a deeper understanding of these violations owing to their potential to not only cause a crisis but also escalate an ongoing one.
Line on Fire, part of the Oxford International Relations in South Asia series, postulates that the incorrect diagnosis of the reasons behind CFVs has led to wrong policies being adopted by both India and Pakistan to deal with the recurrent violations. Using fresh empirical data and first-hand accounts, the volume attempts to understand the reason why CFVs continue to take place between India and Pakistan despite consistent efforts to reduce the tension between the two nations. In doing so, it recontextualizes and enriches the prevailing arguments in contemporary literature on escalating dynamics and unenduring ceasefire agreements between the two South Asian nuclear rivals.
About the Author
Happymon Jacob teaches disarmament studies at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He has published several works, which include Kashmir and Indo-Pak Relations: Politics of Reconciliation (2013) and The Line of Control: Traveling with the Indian and Pakistani Armies (2018).
Happymon Jacob, Associate Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Sumit Ganguly, Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana University, Bloomington, E. Sridharan, Academic Director and Chief Executive, University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India (UPIASI)
Happymon Jacob teaches at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Prior to joining JNU in 2008, Jacob held teaching positions at the University of Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir and the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi, and research positions at the Centre for Air Power Studies, Delhi Policy Group and Observer Research Foundation, all based in New Delhi. During 2016-2017, Jacob was a Senior Global Challenges Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), Berlin, and Central European University, Budapest. He was Visiting Professor, at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris during 2015.
Jacob participates in some of the influential Indian-Pakistan track-two dialogues: Chaophraya Dialogue, Pugwash India-Pakistan Dialogue, and the Ottawa India-Pakistan Dialogue. He is a member of the international Governing Council of the Nobel Peace Prizewinning Pugwash Conferences of Science and World Affairs. Jacob is the Honorary Director of the
Chaophraya Dialogue (India Chapter).
He is a columnist for The Hindu, and hosts a video series called "National Security Conversations with Happymon Jacob" for The Wire.
