India’s Use of Force: The Missing Indirect Approach
Why does India have so few available options to manage security threats? In crisismanagement, Indian policy-makers have faced all-or-nothing choices, either passivelyabsorbing provocations, or overreacting with massive mobilisations and threats ofgeneral war. In wartime, with the notable exception of the 1971 war, India hasgenerally fought to degrade enemy military capabilities rather than to achieve decisiveoperational effects. This paper argues