The Interface of Strategic and War Fighting Doctrines in the India–Pakistan Context

There has been a shift to a deterrent strategic doctrine with an offensive bias. India’s strategic doctrine is thus potentially a compellent one. However, cognizance of the need for limitation to conflict in the nuclear age entails identification of the implications of compellence for both conventional and nuclear doctrines. On the conventional plane, the hiatus between pivot corps and strike corps offensives is taken as a key ‘exit point’ for war termination efforts. At the nuclear level, this article recommends a movement in India’s nuclear doctrine from ‘massive’ punitive retaliation to ‘flexible’ punitive retaliation. This will bring about a concordance between the two levels – conventional and nuclear.