President Clinton ... can fairly claim credit for seeing to it that Pakistan, the offending party, is backing off. But even if the crisis calms, the strategic situation in South Asia has been transformed. Before the United States was politically on the outside of the Kashmir dispute. Now it is being drawn in. the simple reason is that with India and Pakistan both notching up their nuclear status, their failure to resolve their Kashmir differences could have consequences inimical to American interests.

The Clinton administration is caught up in a gathering contradiction. It insists that its steps to dampen the fires ...

do not amount to mediation or negotiation but only to the focussing of international "attention". But the president has now expressed his "personal interest" encouraging the resumption of talks on Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

The administration does not want an up-front or pivotal "broker's ... role, not least, because to take such a role would put off India ... But neither does the administration want to miss a diplomatic opportunity. This is how Washington finds itself semi-disengaging and semi-engaging at the same time. It is an unstable posture ...

.India is enjoying a period of being widely thought to have the merits on its side ... and is in no mood to offer the people of Kashmir a taste of self-determination. But ... India's denial of this democratic benefit in Kashmir is what the dispute remains basically about. An initiative along this line would earn India rich tribute.