National Security Conversations

Happymon Jacob speaks with Manoj Joshi (Senior Defence Journalist),Siddharth Vardarajan (Founding Editor, The Wire) and Kapil Kak (Retd. Air Vice Marshal) to understand the strikes carried by the Indian Air Force in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan on a JeM training facility. The conversation tries to understand the official Indian and Pakistani responses to this operation. Why did the Indian govt. term it as ‘Non-Military Pre-Emptive’ action and what objectives did the Pakistani govt. achieve by denying the impact of the strike. The conversation further discusses whether India has altered the escalation ladder in South Asia by using air power and striking inside Pakistani territory? If yes, how will Pakistan respond? Will this strike stop Pakistan’s support to non-state actors or will it have the opposite effect?