India and Pakistan: Pipe Dream or Pipeline of Peace?
![handle is hein.journals/geojaf5 and id is 43 raw text is: Pipe Dreams?
India and Pakistan:
Pipe Dream or Pipeline of Peace ?
Toufiq A. Siddiqi
In spite of steady economic progress and accelerating rate of
growth in India and Pakistan in recent years, their per capita
income is still less than a tenth of that in the developed world.'
Continued economic growth is the key to eliminating poverty
and maintaining stability on the Subcontinent. This growth,
however, is dependent on access to affordable and reliable
energy sources that are not available domestically. Many have
begun to look to a natural gas pipeline from the rich fields of
the Persian Gulf and Central Asia to the Subcontinent as a
potential solution.
Even though the economic benefits provided by a pipeline
are clear, there are immense political obstacles to such a pro-
ject. A pipeline from Central Asia would have to pass through
politically unstable Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan, whereas one
from Iran or the Emirates would have to pass through most of
Iran and Pakistan before reaching India, whose leaders fear that
the pipeline would give economic leverage to Pakistan in any
future political crisis. Others believe that a pipeline could serve
as an important confidence-building measure and facilitate the
improvement of relations between the two countries-a verita-
ble pipeline of peace. This articles argues that measures could
be taken to largely depoliticize the pipeline, and enable it to be
built for the economic benefit of India, Pakistan, and the rest
Toufiq A. Siddiqi is
President of Global
Environment and
Energy in the 21't Cen-
tury, Adjunct Senior
Fellow at the East-West
Center, and affiliate
graduate faculty member
at the University of
Hawaii. He has been
Regional Advisor for
Energy at the United
Nations ESCAP, Senior
Fellow at the East-West
Center, and Associate
Professor at Indiana
University, Blooming-
ton.
Winter/Spring 2004- [3 5]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojaf5&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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India and Pakistan: Pipe Dream or Pipeline of Peace?
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