Christopher C. Joyner
Abstract: On December 3, 1971, the ongoing conflict in East Bengal finally culminated in war between India and Pakistan. Much of the existing scholarship on the Indo-Pakistani War concerns the various humanitarian issues surrounding this conflict, but there has been little analysis written from the foreign policy-international law perspective. The purpose of this article is to uncover the connections between the national interests and strategies of both India and Pakistan within the context of international law constraints. The analysis finds that in Pakistan’s case, national interests, including the state’s physical and cultural survival, superseded any consideration for international law. Conversely, India was more likely to invoke international law because the law often worked in its favor during the conflict, as Pakistan had violated a number of UN guidelines on the rules of war. In both cases, the Indo-Pakistani War demonstrates the inextricable link between international law and national policy preferences of states.
Keywords: India, Pakistan, War, conflict, national interests, international law, foreign policy
