Comparative Study of Aggravating Factors and Improving Efforts in Bilateral Relations of Divided Nations

Abstract

The partition of the Subcontinent, with the objective of implementing the Two Nation Theory, led to the formation of a truncated Pakistan. With the benefit of hindsight, this supposed solution has proved to be overly simplistic but for a time being glossed over the underneath differences between the two wings of East and West Pakistan which ultimately led to a tragic and traumatic split between the two parts. Those tragic events of dismemberment of the nation still haunt both the countries and continue to embitter their mutual relations. In the same fashion, the Korean Peninsula could not hold together as a unified nation after its liberation from 35 years of Japanese Imperial rule. Beginning with the imposed division of the peninsula across the 38th Parallel, with control by the Soviet Union to the North and the United States to the South, the Korean Peninsula became a place for the global power struggle during the Cold War. It is this competition that eventually led to the bloody Korean War, followed by the years of uneasy truce, cross-border confrontations and provocations, and a general sense of permanent mutual irritation in inter-Korean relations. Both the cases of the two Koreas and Bangladesh and Pakistan, notwithstanding their differences, have such common characteristics where their comparison would yield interesting insights. A common colonial past followed by an internecine war and the role of global powers in their conflictual relations is investigated thoroughly. This research has been conducted as a comparative study of the historical context of the conflicting relations between the two Koreas and Bangladesh and Pakistan. Contextualizing the antagonism and irritants in their mutual relations this study has delved deep to highlight their enduring nature and offer a way out of this cycle.