Pakistan's lawfare strategy against India has finally been blunted

Pakistan has long understood that it cannot compete with India on the conventional balance of power. Its answer has therefore been to engage India on other battlefields where India's size and strength can be converted into political and diplomatic vulnerabilities. For Pakistan the repeated military confrontations have failed to produce any desired results. Hence, Islamabad has repeatedly shifted the contest into international institutions, treaty mechanisms, arbitration panels and diplomatic forums with an objective to create a process that keeps India tied down, forces it to repeatedly defend legitimate actions and places international pressure on New Delhi. Pakistan understood this mechanism very well. The Indus Waters Treaty gave it a powerful instrument because the treaty's elaborate dispute-resolution architecture provided repeated opportunities to elevate disagreements beyond the bilateral level. The World Bank became an important part of this story because it was involved in the treaty's creation and its institutional framework. Pakistan could therefore present what were essentially India-Pakistan disputes as matters requiring international supervision. India, meanwhile, was often placed in the uncomfortable position of having to explain and defend its activities before institutions outside the bilateral relationship.