Abstract

India and Pakistan are developing limited war concepts that focus upon rapid seizure of rival territory, backed by fast-moving armored formations and precision-strike munitions. The scope of these plans intentionally test thresholds for major conventional or nuclear war and threaten unplanned escalation if applied in a conflict. Instead of these cross-border strike packages, this chapter recommends that both states focus on developing conventional deterrence-by-denial postures. This will demonstrate to the adversary that any attempted military solutions to their disputes will end in failure. To further avert the risk of unintended escalation, confidence-building measures should be more robustly built into their military deployments.