Indo-Pak: Escalating use of force has limits

Political parties should abstain from exploiting a foreign policy issue for short-term domestic gains

It has been several months since Indian and Pakistani forces have been locked into a tit-for-tat exchange of fire across the Line of Control (LoC), although the Indian side believes that by making its tat more deadly than the Pakistani tit, it is imposing more costs than it incurs itself. But so far, there is no evidence that deliberate escalation of fire by the Indian side is leading to any change in Pakistani calculus. On the contrary, there is a matching escalatory dynamic at work on the other side, with significant damage being inflicted on border villages on the Indian