New Delhi, May 20 -- The India-Pakistan conflict nearly escalated to nuclear brinkmanship before U.S. President Donald Trump's intervention brought both Delhi and Islamabad to a ceasefire. Trump's diplomacy helped avert the nightmare of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), but what unfolded under India's Operation Sindoor has reshaped regional deterrence doctrines.

A Shift in India's Strategic Doctrine

India's strike on Pakistan's military installations marked an unprecedented move-directly targeting a nuclear-armed state's military infrastructure. In doing so, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discarded long-held assumptions underpinning nuclear deterrence.

The Indian operation signaled that Pakistan's longstanding strategy-of sheltering cr...