New Delhi, May 13 -- In 2025, the escalating military tensions between India and Pakistan brought the world to the edge of one of the most catastrophic crises of the 21st century, evoking haunting parallels with the drole de guerre-the "phoney war" that preceded the cataclysm of World War I. Coined in France to describe a period of tense calm before all-out conflict, the term belied the looming tragedy. In the Indian subcontinent, the similarities are chilling: a volatile mix of fervent nationalism, strategic miscalculations, and the cynical use of external conflict to suppress internal dissent pushed the world to the precipice of nuclear disaster.

Military leaders, acutely aware of war's horrors, typically view it as a last resort. Yet ...