Diplomacy and Democracy Avert Indo-Pak Crisis 1986-87

Abstract

After a long break of almost 15 years, the world witnessed another crisis in1986-87 between two South Asian rivals but this time it was little bit different one. This crisis indicated a new dimension in Indo-Pak confrontations. The world embraced when the leaders of the two countries stated publicly that they are in a position to manufacture and use nuclear weapons. This article tries to look into 1986-87 crisis to know whether nuclear deterrence prevailed during the crisis or not.  The article finds that 1986-87 crisis was having the conventional dimension and didn’t have any nuclear dimension as India and Pakistan were not in a position to manufacture nuclear weapons at the times of crisis. Though the leaders of the two countries threatened each other with the use of nuclear weapons but these were only verbal threats but in fact both India and Pakistan knew that no one of them possessed nuclear weapons during the crisis. The article further finds that it was diplomacy and democracy which played a very important role in reducing the tension and averting crisis between India and Pakistan.