ABSTRACT
Since the Partition and Independence of the British Indian Empire in 1947, and the subsequent Independence of Ceylon in 1948, academic literature on the international politics of South Asia has proliferated, especially since the 1998 nuclear tests. Issues such as nuclear weaponisation, religious and ethnic violence, revolutionary movements, Islamic “terrorists,” and “failing states” have informed-or distorted-debates on what constitutes South Asia, prospects for peace and stability in the states of the region,and how and to what extent events and policies can be effectively influenced by outside sources-primarily the west, and specifically, US administrations.1
