Analysed here is the vexing Kashmir issue from various angles—firstly with regard to the lingering potential for nuclear conflict between India, Pakistan and possibly China and secondly in view of the growing socio- political alienations and divisions within both Indian and Pakistani societies, which risk disintegration as a result. The author also notes the rise of BRIC nations in the new multipolar system and places the Kashmir dispute in the context of the conflict between radicalised Muslims and people of other faiths as an aspect of the reassertion of rival cultural and religious identities worldwide. Finally, if India and Pakistan cannot rise above their quarrel by symbiotically investing in their mutual stability, they will allow Western nations and China to dictate an outcome.
