There is sufficient space for India to wage a limited war against Pakistan. Fears of escalation to the nuclear realm are grossly exaggerated by the critics of limited war, who ignore or misinterpret several factors (such as nuclear deterrence and international pressure) that would prevent conflict expansion in South Asia. While the current level of political-diplomatic-military planning in India lacks the capacity to meet the essential tenets of limited war, this can change and the requisite conditions can be achieved through better synergy and collaboration between different spheres.
Since there is no evidence to suggest that the expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile has degraded India’s retaliatory capability, India should retain its no-first-use doctrine.
2011 began on a sombre note for arms control, nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament with Pakistan once again blocking negotiations for a FMCT
Pakistan is the main outlier in negotiations at the Conference on Disarmament over a Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). Its ceaseless quest for parity with India are not likely to meet with success. Meanwhile, nuclear stocks within Pakistan pose a danger to Pakistan itself.
By concentrating only on the inequities of the blasphemy law, Pakistani ‘moderates’ and commentators elsewhere are missing the point that the real battle is against radical Islamic thought.
The rise of the jihadist movement in Pakistan is driven primarily by ideological and religious factors. Decades of indoctrination of a virulent version of radical political Islam has motivated thousands of people—young and old—to take the path of violent jihad to capture political power, and through it, transform the society, economy and culture to bring about what they consider to be a pristine Islamic order.
It is a truism to say that the elite in Pakistan has used Islam to perpetuate its hold on power ever since the state came into being in 1947. The judiciary in Pakistan has been the latest to emphasise its Islamist credentials to legitimise its rise as an important constituent of the influential ‘quartet’ that is ruling Pakistan today.
As long as the sub-conventional deterrence holds, the enunciation of the Cold Start doctrine actually introduces a degree of strategic stability in the region.
