Thesis ((install)): S Jaishankar Phd

At its heart, Jaishankar’s thesis tackled a central dilemma of the Cold War era: could the superpower logic of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) be applied to a regional context like South Asia? He argued that it could not be transplanted directly. Unlike the US-USSR dyad, which was characterized by geographical distance and ideological parity, the India-Pakistan-China triangle was marked by proximity, asymmetry in conventional forces, and low-intensity conflict. Jaishankar posited that deterrence in this “regional context” was inherently more fragile and crisis-prone. He introduced the concept of a "minimum credible deterrent"—not as a static arsenal, but as a dynamic political tool designed to prevent escalation while preserving space for diplomacy. This was a distinctly Indian realist argument: nuclear weapons were not instruments of war-winning, but of war-prevention in a hostile neighborhood.