The Limits of Influence, the 36th volume in the ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Series, is the first systematic study of U.S. efforts to help forge a settlement between India and Pakistan on the sixty-year-old "Kashmir question." Veteran diplomat Howard B. Schaffer, a former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, draws on interviews with senior American officials, historical research, and his decades of experience in South Asia to explain and evaluate three generations of U.S. activities and policies toward the volatile region. The study concludes with recommendations on the future role Washington might usefully play in dealing with the Kashmir dilemma as it seeks to promote increasingly important U.S. interests in the South Asia region.

During thirty-six years in the Foreign Service, Howard Schaffer specialized in U.S. relations with South Asia. He currently teaches at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, where he is director of studies at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. He is the author of Chester Bowles: New Dealer in the Cold War (Harvard, 1993) and Ellsworth Bunker: Global Troubleshooter, Vietnam Hawk (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), his earlier book in the ADST-DACOR series.

Other Reviews

"Schaffer's definitive volume provides a deeply informed and highly readable account of American efforts to resolve the Kashmir conflict. ... [His] excellent book is an invaluable guide to the lessons of past involvement and the possible paths forward."