Cold Start Doctrine: The Idea of Limited Scale War & South Asian Insecurity

[Sarosh Ibrahim]

The author notes that the idea of the CSD in India launched after “Operation Parakram”; the operation was followed by 2001 terror attacks on the Indian Parliament, suspected to be sponsored by Pakistan, and thus in 2004, India developed its Cold Start Doctrine.

Pakistan and India have historically been engaged in several armed struggles against each other, but the post-1998 scenario heightened the tensions between these nuclear states.

India’s military strategy of CSD envisions conducting a limited-scale war much below the nuclear threshold to minimize the chances of escalation.

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#Pakistan #India #CSD #ColdStartDoctrine #WWII #OperationParakram #Blitzkrieg #ParadigmShift

 

[User]

We are always thankful to India for giving us an impetus to be creative. In this case, we developed tactical nuclear weapons to take care of CSD.

 

[Saudang]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

 

[Yasser76]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

Pakistan has more warheads then India according to almost every reliable western source. Granted you are a bigger country, but end of Pakistan will, by default, cause the end of India

 

[User]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

Sir I will paraphrase your long comment for you:
"Bring a knife to a gunfight."

 

[waz]

Pakistan is undergoing large scale procumemts and modernisation. I’m not sure how cold start will get off the ground if it’s blunted at the start. Pakistan can mobilise faster, throw its entire forces into battle, which by the way have parity or more in some areas e.g. SPA, and has less land to defend. I haven’t even gone into miles of fortifications, artificial barriers, natural barriers etc.
Also why would Pakistan allow such a large concentration of hostile forces to gather in the first place? Pakistan has thousands of devastating stand-off weapons which will target such forces.
Cold start is outdated. What you probably will get is a skirmish/battle where one side can be humiliated.

 

[Baibars_1260]

Operation Brasstacks in 1987 was actually a Cold Start exercise.
India's main focus was from Rajasthan ( Jodhpur ) to strike deep in the Bahawalpur sector and cut off Multan, Khanewal, Sahiwal from Lahore and Karachi and hold the positions , grinding down Pakistan's resistance through attrition. A simultaneous blockade of Karachi was also envisioned with a massive deployment of all IAF assets to gound the PAF and possibly neutralize it. The aim was to topple the government in Pakistan and force Pakistan to accede AJK before Indian forces withdrew.
Ravi Rikhye documented this in his book "The war that never was."

 

[Saudang]

Sir I will paraphrase your long comment for you:
"Bring a knife to a gunfight."

I am a story teller.. like the description and suspense

 

[jaybird]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

Your analogy doesn't make any sense because Pakistan is the stronger nuke power than India. So, Pakistan is the one with sledge hammer as far as nuclear weapons is concern. India only have the upper hand with conventional force due to number of troops and as a much bigger country than Pakistan.

 

[Mrc]

No cold start without airsuperiority

 

[Saudang]

Pakistan is undergoing large scale procumemts and modernisation. I’m not sure how cold start will get off the ground if it’s blunted at the start. Pakistan can mobilise faster, throw its entire forces into battle, which by the way have parity or more in some areas e.g. SPA, and has less land to defend. I haven’t even gone into miles of fortifications, artificial barriers, natural barriers etc.
Also why would Pakistan allow such a large concentration of hostile forces to gather in the first place? Pakistan has thousands of devastating stand-off weapons which will target such forces.
Cold start is outdated. What you probably will get is a skirmish/battle where one side can be humiliated.

Cold Start is responsive rather than proactive. As long as Pakistan behave, we are all fine

 

[TheSnakeEatingMarkhur]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

Pakistan has Sledgehammer as well as Stick... stick gives your agility and speed and can f*ck you up

Cold Start is responsive rather than proactive. As long as Pakistan behave, we are all fine

Thats why india tried it in 2014

 

[peagle]

Pakistani Tactical Nuclear weapons are like you get into a fight with an with an opponent who has a sledgehammer in his hand and you start the fight by hitting him with a tinny stick. After that, Pakistan will hope that the opponent play fair and find a tinny stick to hit back. But the opponent has nothing but a big sledge hammer to retaliate ...

What a childish interpretation, full of assumptions, and without giving any insight into your opponent's thinking.

Tactical nuclear weapons are a double-edged sword, Pakistan is fully aware of that, but, you do not make plans or a strategy by purely looking at the repercussions, you have to balance your gains with the opponent's reaction.

If we apply the logic in your childish statement, then why have guns, tanks, or soldiers on the border, because each and every action has an opposite reaction.

The tactical nuclear weapons doctrine started after the cold start doctrine,
It's extremely stupid to think that if you develop a doctrine to capture your opponent's territory, that opponent is not going to react with an equal or harsher capability, it is childish and stupid. India has nuclear weapons, so the cold start doctrine will be operating under an Indian nuclear umbrella, you cannot claim that the Indian nuclear weapons are not a threat, then why did you develop them, they have a purpose, that's why so much effort went into developing a nuclear capability.

The second reaction comes from Pakistan, your statement claims Pakistan's reaction as being the first, again that's childish and false.
Pakistans development of tactical nuclear weapons is an acknowledgment of existing capabilities, whilst you operate under the protective umbrella of nuclear weapons, so does Pakistan.
it's like having a gun in your pocket, but attacking your gun-carrying opponent with a knife, that would be stupid.

It's called an escalation ladder,
India having started the whole process, it will be India's choice how far they wish to go. India's full nuclear response will be met by Pakistan's full nuclear response.
If India wants to play a game of chicken with nuclear weapons, all Pakistan has said is, OK, let's go.

Either play the game, or, shut the hell up, and stop whinging and crying like a baby.
If you cant play the game then don't get in the ring. Grow up.

 

[Saudang]

Pakistan has Sledgehammer as well as Stick... stick gives your agility and speed and can f*ck you

Exactly.. why would you start with a stick when you have a sledgehammer?

Even if in a parallel universe, if India decides not to retaliate to a tactical nuclear attack, Pakistani will face an international hammering on economy, politics and can kiss a good bye to Kashmir issue.. That only if India decides not to retaliate..

By the way, are there Pakistanis who think that India will not retaliate to a nuclear attack?? Would love to meet those guys some day understand their Psyche

 

[peagle]

Operation Brasstacks in 1987 was actually a Cold Start exercise.
India's main focus was from Rajasthan ( Jodhpur ) to strike deep in the Bahawalpur sector and cut off Multan, Khanewal, Sahiwal from Lahore and Karachi and hold the positions , grinding down Pakistan's resistance through attrition. A simultaneous blockade of Karachi was also envisioned with a massive deployment of all IAF assets to gound the PAF and possibly neutralize it. The aim was to topple the government in Pakistan and force Pakistan to accede AJK before Indian forces withdrew.
Ravi Rikhye documented this in his book "The war that never was."

We all know how that went,
India is a country of fools.