India and Pakistan: 'A Bad Nuclear War'
by Gordon G. Chang • May 29, 2025 at 5:00 am
The Trump administration, which had previously displayed a lack of interest in the conflict, then quickly intervened and brokered a ceasefire.
"[T]he possession of nuclear weapons may have incentivized risky confrontations that pass just below the ambiguous nuclear threshold." –Aqil Shah, Foreign Affairs , May 23, 2025
Pakistan did not have to detonate one of its nuclear warheads to shake the world. Now, an emboldened Islamabad will almost certainly hit India again.
Nukes are supposed to moderate national leaders and make them cautious. When it comes to India and Pakistan, however, the opposite now looks true.
"We stopped a nuclear conflict, I think it could have been a bad nuclear war, millions of people could have been killed, so I'm very proud of that," President Donald Trump told reporters on May 12.
Proud he should be. Although New Delhi refuses to acknowledge Washington's role in brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, the Trump administration was nonetheless instrumental in stopping fighting that could have escalated, as Newsweek wrote, "to the brink of all-out war."
On April 22, gunmen murdered 26 Hindu tourists and others at Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan also claims that territory.
New Delhi blames Islamabad for harboring militants who staged the attack. Pakistan denies involvement.
