He has written extensively on South Asia and West Asia, his most recent book being `JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA and the Sino-Indian War'. The senior fellow at Brookings Institution speaks to Anahita Mukherji on the Pathankot attack, the Modi-Sharif meeting and hopes of Indo-Pak detente post Lahore.PM Modi's trip to Lahore was the kind of expansive gesture that galvanizes history .The jihadists and their patrons are horrified that he was so well received in Lahore and frightened they will lose control.I don't think we have seen their full response yet. I anticipate more attempts to sabotage the political process.Pakistan has a long history of troubled civil-military relations. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is apparently genuinely interested in detente with India (and Afghanistan). The army is not. The challenge for India is how to handle this tricky environment. Expectations should be modest and focus on tangible improvements in people-to-people issues like travel, tourism and communications.Expanding trade and commerce is crucial to build constituents who favour detente.More frequent contact between the two PMs can help iron out differences. They should meet regularly .I don't think many observers are fooled by the ban on JEM or LET. The ISI still patronizes both. Their leaders operate openly and freely. They openly criticize Sharif, Modi and Obama. They engage in incitement. Remember, both worked together in the 2001 attack on Parliament.Pakistani civilian-elected governments have struggled for decades to control the army with little success. It will take time and effort, and the right general as COAS (Chief of Army Staff). The US can help by not coddling the generals and impos ing a price for supporting terror on t the military, not on Pakistan.The mujahideen war in the 1980s defeated a great totalitari defeated a great tota an re gime and removed the danger of thermonuclear war between Moscow and Washington. It led to the freedom of millions in Eastern Europe. At the same time it laid the seeds for what became the global jihad. Zia-ul Haq was the father of the global jihad. Like most great transitions in history, the war had complex consequences. According to you, what are the underlying motives for the current Saudi-Iran tensions?Saudi Arabia and Iran have been rivals for decades even before the Iranian revolution. Persian Shia versus Arab Sunni, it's a deadly cocktail. Today they are engaged in multiple overlapping proxy wars. Both are bogged down in quagmires: Iran in Syria bolstering Assad and Saudi Arabia in Yemen fighting the Houthis. Both are expensive wars at a time when oil prices are collapsing. The Saudi leadership has proven to be somewhat reckless. Even Pakistan recognized the Yemeni adventure was poorly conceived, and wisely stayed out. The Pakistani decision to stay out robbed the Saudis of their crucial ground forces.The region is undergoing a catastrophic transition since the failure of the Arab Spring. Multiple interlocking civil wars, multiple interconnected terrorist groups and multiple outside actors intervening.It will get worse because of the sectarian dimension which ignites deep pas sions. Both Tehran and Riyadh are pouring gasoline on an inferno.South Asia already feels the ripples of the fire. The Islamic State has ar rived. This is another reason for Modi and Sharif to find common ground. A detente between New Delhi and Islamabad is hard to make happen but it would help to insulate India from the storm to its west.