Abstract
No nation in the present world can live in total isolation. In pursuit of one's own national interest, independence, survival and development, an interaction takes place among and between nations which marks the characterstic of the present international system and other subordinate state systems. The international system is dominated by the Super Power whose major aim is to increase their “sphere of influence” in all parts of the globe. The subordinate state systems such as South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America are rife with regional conflicts and wars largely rooted in their historical, territorial and psychological claims. Though both the international system and subordinate systems are affected by each other, the former basically sets broad limits, context, and direction of regional conflicts in the subordinate state systems.
Since India and Pakistan are situated in South Asia—a subordinate state system — the impact of the international system dominated mainly by the United States and the Soviet Union on the Shaping of their external policy environment would explain their conflictual relationship.
This study is confined to an analysis of the involvement of the United States - one of the Super Powers in the conflictual and belligerent relationship between India and Pakistan with brief intervals of lull, since their becoming independent in 1947.
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