WASHINGTON: After the 1998 nuclear tests, “some people” in South Asia unwisely experimented with a limited conventional war between two nuclear powers but the time has come to give up such dangerous ideas forever, says Khalid Kidwai, the adviser to the National Command Authority.

Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Mr Kidwai, who is a retired general and pioneer Director General of Pakistan’s Strategic Plans Division, also said that Pakistan had developed short-range “tactical” nuclear weapons in response to India’s cold-start doctrine.

“There was a time after the 1998 nuclear tests when some people unwisely experimented with the idea that despite the nuclear overhang in South Asia, there was space for a limited conventional war,” he said. “Therefore one power might be able to overwhelm another nuclear power.

He warned that besides being a dangerous thinking, it was also naïve as the experience of the last 17 years had shown.

“The idea did not work in the escalations of 2001-02, nor during the tensions of 2008, nor is it likely to work in the future,” he said.

He noted that “the naivety of finding space for a limited conventional war, despite the proven nuclear capabilities of both sides, went so far as to translating it into an offensive doctrine, the cold start doctrine”.

He compared India’s cold-start doctrine to “a pre-programmed, pre-determined shooting from the hip posture”.

He noted that the Indians believed that “in quick time” they would be able to “commence at the tactical level, graduating rapidly to the operational-strategic level”. But they were “strangely oblivious of the nuclear Armageddon it might unleash in the process”. Mr Kidwai said. “It was clearly not thought through.”

Published in Dawn March 25th , 2015

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