The Risk of Inadvertent Nuclear Use Between India and Pakistan

Abstract

Although the Indian and Pakistani governments strongly desire to avoid a fourth war, the coercive diplomacy pursued by each side has brought them to the brink of major conflict on more than one occasion in recent years. Today tensions remain high, and war is a distinct possibility. Should hostilities break out, what are the chances that the fighting could be confined to the use of conventional military force? Although both Indian and Pakistani leaders would do everything in their power to avoid using nuclear weapons, there are three situations in which a large-scale conventional conflict between India and Pakistan could inadvertently escalate to nuclear warfare because of the nations' asymmetries in doctrine and military capabilities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 03, 2003
Accession Number
ADA525408

Entities

People

  • Peter R. Lavoy
  • Stephen A. Smith

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Asia
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Bomber Aircraft
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Conventional Warfare
  • Fissile Materials
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Pakistan
  • South Asia
  • United States Strategic Command
  • Warfare
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies