War and deterrence

Everybody is speaking about the changing nature of the war and deterrence in the backdrop of the India-Pakistan standoff in May 2025, without understanding that the nature of war remains the same – the interplay of primordial human passion for violence, chance and politics.

In contrast, the dynamics of deterrence keep evolving with technology. Humans wage war because of the violent urge to dominate and achieve some political objectives through chance or military strategies. This Clausewitzian trinity of war is played out in the full glare of context, both shaped as well as shaping the politics and technology.

According to Clausewitz, “War is more than a true chameleon that slightly adapts its characteristics to the given case.” India, in our neighbourhood, has desperately tried to adapt the characteristics of conventional war to its advantage in pursuit of its political objectives of attaining regional hegemony – but has so far miserably failed. The cause celebre of its latest attempt – a terrorist incident in Indian-occupied Kashmir, could not be converted into a

‘new normal’, despite the histrionics and braggadocio of the war-soused sensibilities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Instead, what India received was a sobering rejoinder of its powerlessness vis-a-vis a technologically superior Pakistan, which outmaneuvered India in a conventional

showdown that New Delhi had planned as a first step on the ladder to hegemony.

The father of nuclear strategy, Bernard