Tyler Cowen, Columnist

What If India and Pakistan Actually Got Along?

Full reunification is difficult to imagine, but there are many possible arrangements that fall short of that.

Along the India-Pakistan border, August 2021.

Photographer: Feature China/Future Publishing

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Every now and then — but not too often — it is worth floating an idea that hardly anyone agrees with, if only to keep the discourse fresh. In that spirit, consider my latest entry to this category: The status quo between India and Pakistan is temporary. The world should start thinking about a future in which the two nations have a fundamentally different relationship.

Full reunification, of course, is difficult to imagine. But there are many possible options that fall short of that: a loose confederation, a NAFTA-like trade structure, a military alliance, even a broader regional reconfiguration under which each nation loses some territory but the remaining parts move closer together.