A Sane Voice Goes Silent

Prof. Cohen was exceptional in many ways. He was one of those few Americans who were best known in India and Pakistan for their objective analysis of the region’s security options. Most political experts and researchers in the West desist from examining this aspect on the basis of merit; they tend to form subjective views that are mostly aligned with their official policies.

Prof. Cohen’s reputation as a US-based expert on South Asian security issues was well-founded and emerged as a leading voice from the West.

In the Western world, Stephen Cohen was best-known for his deep insights into Pakistani and Indian security requirements. He was like a one-man think tank on the most complex security matters of the sub-continent. His five-decade long association with the South Asian region helped him depict a reality-based picture of regional security that is vulnerable at the hands of those global powers that seem to be over-concerned by what they deem as the fragile state of peace and security in the region.

Born in 1936, Stephen Philip Cohen was a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy programme at the Brookings Institute for 21 years - from 1998 till his death on October 27, 2019. During his association with the Brookings Institute, he published seven books and several papers focusing primarily on security and foreign policy in South Asia.

Cohen was the first American scholar to work in South Asian security studies. Being a pioneer in his domain, he trained and mentored many leading analysts and security strategists. In addition, he developed policy interests in key matters, such as disaster management, nuclear proliferation and counter-terrorism. In recognition of his impactful scholarship and far-reaching influence in policy-making, he was named senior fellow emeritus by Brookings in 2017.

Prior to joining Brookings, Cohen was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the departments of political science and history from 1965 to 1998.

He served as a member of the Policy Planning staff at the U.S. Department of State in 1985-87. He also taught in Singapore, Japan and India and served as scholar-in-residence at the Ford Foundation in New Delhi in 1992-93.

Cohen authored, co-authored and edited a number of books, research papers, monographs and articles. Among the best-known titles are, ‘The Future of Pakistan,’ ‘Pakistan, Piece by Piece,’ ‘Shooting for a Century: The India-Pakistan Conundrum,’ ‘The Idea of Pakistan,’ ‘The Pakistan Army,’ ‘The Indian Army: Its Contribution to the Development of a Nation,’ ‘The Compound Crisis of 1990: Perception, Politics and Insecurity,’ ‘India: Emerging Power’ and the ‘Arming without Aiming: India’s Military Modernization.’

Stephen Cohen was named as one of America's 500 most influential people in foreign affairs. He died leaving behind a generation of political researchers and strategic analysts he had mentored over a 50-year career.