The role of emotions in interstate relations : Using an interpersonal conflict model to reconceptualize Pakistan’s obsession vis-a-vis India

Kadir, Jawad and Jawad, Majida (2020) The role of emotions in interstate relations : Using an interpersonal conflict model to reconceptualize Pakistan’s obsession vis-a-vis India. Asian Journal of Comparative Politics. ISSN 2057-892X

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Abstract

Despite using the terms such as “siblings” or “brothers from the same mother” by many, there are few or no attempts to explain the wide ranging sentiments associated with India-Pakistan rivalry from a theoretical perspective. A cross-disciplinary approach has been employed in this article to re-examine and to reconceptualize the existing landscape of Pakistan-India conflict. An interpersonal conflict model has been used to theorize the emotions found in their bilateral relations which have often been neglected or marginalized while studying their obsessive rivalry vis-à-vis each other. Despite testing the troublesome dyad of these nation-states on diametrically opposite ethnic or religious grounds, this article categorizes Pakistan and India as they are former family members who parted their ways in 1947. This article explains different phases of an interpersonal conflict model and clarifies how the emotional climate associated with these phases could be transposed to an intergroup and interstate level of conflicts between communities who used to live together for centuries, and engage them in a perpetual rivalry.