Sumit Ganguly is a skilful writer and a yeoman whose book, Deadly Impasse: Indo-Pakistani Relations at the Dawn of a New Century, is based on secondary sources. It is an incisive promulgation of his own ideas regarding the nettlesome problems of Indo-Pak relations persisting since the partition of the Sub-continent in 1947. Focussed on the period between 1999 and 2009, his narrative is an attempt to describe the relationship in the purview of the theoretical framework. Sumit has attempted to analyse the security predicament of the two nuclear states in both spiral and deterrence model. His work is a valuable source for policy studies.
The evolution of rivalry between India and Pakistan is structured on the basis of Pakistan’s inherent anxieties as a weak state since its time of inception. The territorial dispute of Jammu and Kashmir has mainly wrested the relationship. Pakistan, according to Sumit, is a „revisionist power.‟ “unalterably committed to changing the territorial status quo regardless of Indian behaviour.” (p.13) On the other hand, India insists on the status quo.
