Avoiding Catastrophic Conflict in South Asia

The alarming new standoff between India and Pakistan could end in any number of ways, from talks and a quick truce, to a series of military escalations that risk ending in a nuclear exchange. At such a perilous moment, the need for calm and dialogue is plain – but more than this is required. The longtime South Asian rivals need to recognize that when tensions flare, the spiral of escalation is unforgiving and hard to control. They should help each other to avoid it.

India sent fighter jets into Pakistan on Tuesday for the first time in decades, to bomb a suspected terrorist training camp in retaliation for an earlier suicide bombing that killed 40 members of the Indian security forces in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Then, having claimed that Indian bombs struck nothing but a deserted hilltop, Pakistan fired missiles from its own jets into Indian-controlled Kashmir, and shot down and captured an Indian pilot. India’s government now faces pressure to retaliate again.