Analysis: Reimagining deterrence, 28 years after Chagai

TWENTY-eight years after the nuclear tests at Chagai, the strategic environment in South Asia has shifted dramatically. The assumptions that shaped Pakistan’s deterrence posture in 1998, and the paradigm shift from ‘Credible Minimum Deterrence’ to ‘Full-Spectrum Deterrence’, were rooted in visions of a conventional invasion, mass mobilisation and large-scale armoured thrusts across the border. In contrast, the modern battlefield looks very different today. The war...