The economics of accomodation

There is plenty to be sceptical about the current 'peace' process between Pakistan and India. The immediate impulses behind this peace process are none too encouraging. In particular, the military-led government in Islamabad is under tremendous pressure from its US backers to adopt a cooperative posture vis-à-vis the giant eastern neighbour. The Pakistani military, unsurprisingly, is a corporate player with a history and culture of animosity towards India. Some peace-process optimists argue that it is for this very reason that the military is the most reliable deliverer of amity – weak civil leaders cannot make credible promises and survive.

The logic that hawks can be reliable peace-makers is widely used in international relations, but what of the fundamental political and economic interests of Pakistan's military, which might actually lie in the perpetuation of the state of cold war in the Subcontinent? Any normalisation process would undermine the political legitimacy of the military as an entity, consequently giving rise to challenges to its claims on the country's economic resources. These claims would not be limited to the public purse, though that is important. They would extend to the military's vast and expanding corporate empire, spanning sectors such as manufacturing, finance, property development, freight, air travel and agriculture. Why should a corporate entity that is known to jealously guard its interests bring about its own studied demise?