India, May 20 -- The dastardly terror attack in Pahalgam last month triggered an Indian response in the form of Operation Sindoor. An intense engagement, in which the Indian armed forces scored hits in the most secure coordinates of Pakistan's airspace, followed. Three days later, on the request of the DGMO of the Pakistan army, an understanding was reached between both countries to stop operations.

One way of making sense of this sequence is to use the Game Theory framework. A concept called deterrence can be particularly illuminating. Deterrence is a strategy where one player (e.g., a country) prevents another's undesirable action (e.g., a terrorist attack) by threatening a costly response.

The fundamental property of deterrence is th...