CAPP Events: 2002

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CAPP Hosts Discussion with Ambassador on U.S.-India Relations

India is currently experiencing outbreaks of internal sectarian violence at the same time that its troops are positioned in a tense face-off with Pakistani troops along the India-Pakistan border.

Against this backdrop of tumultuous current events, Frank Wisner, former U.S. Ambassador to India and Center for Asia Pacific Policy (CAPP) Advisory Board member, came to RAND's Santa Monica office on March 11, 2002 to provide an overview of U.S.-India relations to an audience of RAND researchers and CAPP advisory board members.

Ambassador Wisner discussed the slow changes that have taken place in U.S.-India relations since the end of the Cold War. According to Wisner, the pressure to hold India to a standard of nonproliferation was weighing down U.S. policy in the late 1990s. Ironically, it was not until India's 1998 nuclear test that the U.S. government was able to break free of this framework. The 1998 test resulted in the expansion of sanctions against India, but the stage was set for the United States to take a more engaged position.

In 2000, President Clinton made a groundbreaking trip to India that symbolized a major warming trend in U.S.-Indian relations. Subsequently, since the beginning of the Bush presidency, there has been a positive surge in U.S.-India relations.

Wisner noted that the terrorist attacks of September 11 were the catalyst for regular consultations between India and the United States, a retraction of past U.S. sanctions against India, and an increase in sales of military equipment to India.

In assessing where the United States' relations with India are headed, however, Ambassador Wisner cautioned that our gradually warming relationship is fragile and new, so the United States should tread carefully, especially since India's history of subjugation makes it wary of stronger powers like the United States. He noted that the United States must also be mindful of India's relations with Pakistan. Currently, India and Pakistan remain in a dangerous state of mobilization.

With Pakistani and Indian forces lined up on the border, Ambassador Wisner addressed the question of what role the United States could play in mitigating current tensions between the two nuclear rivals. According to Wisner, the first and most important objective is ending cross-border violence.

He stated that America should keep the spotlight on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to crack down on militant radicals and should pressure him for results. Wisner then laid out a series of steps that are crucial in order for the two sides to make progress in Kashmir.

Wisner portrayed the prospects for diplomacy as ultimately uncertain, and the historical legacy between the two sides as very difficult. Given the dangerous implications of unending turmoil between India and Pakistan and the role that the United States could play in the conflict, he stressed that ultimately it is very important that the United States keep its relations with both India and Pakistan in good working order.

Wisner, a native of New York, received his degree from Princeton University. He is currently Vice Chairman, External Affairs, at American International Group. A career diplomat with the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest grade in the senior Foreign Service, he served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1994 to 1997.