Faultlines : Writings on conflict & resolution (Vol.4)

Had there been any illusions that the new millennium would bring an age of peace and harmony to the Indian sub-continent, these were dispelled both by the circumstances in which the last year ended, and the way the new one began. Whatever little margin for hope may have existed after the hijacking of IC-814 Christmas Eve last, it soon gave way to a series of devastating attacks in Jammu & Kashmir on security forces' installations and personnel, by the fidayeen ñ suicide squads of Pakistan-backed militants and mercenaries. The sense of the collapse of the Indian State's institutional response structures was reinforced again and again, beginning with the handling of the hijack, through the humiliating dénouement at Kandahar on New Years Eve, down to each succeeding attack on heavily guarded military, para -military and police camps and establishments in J&K.

The integrating theme of this Volume is the effort to create the context for a radical reorientation of counter-terrorism policy and practice. A wide spectrum of strategic alternatives and institutional reforms have been explored and evaluated with the objective of defining internally consistent, flexible and effective mechanisms to combat the dangers of a virulent and unconstrained method of war that recognises no bounds of morality or of law, and threatens the norms and institutions of civilisation itself.