If an India-Pakistan war breaks out in future, it will be more devastating !

Claim by former US diplomat Elizabeth Threlkeld

New York (USA) – One year is being completed since India launched the military operation ‘Operation Sindoor’ in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. On this occasion, former US diplomat Elizabeth Threlkeld has written an article on ‘X’. She stated that if war breaks out again between India and Pakistan, it would be far more devastating than previous conflicts. Even the United States may not be able to stop it. For many years, experts feared that if a ground war began between India and Pakistan, Pakistan might resort to using nuclear weapons. However, the coming danger could prove even more dangerous than a deliberately initiated conflict.

On the one-year anniversary of the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, I write for @ForeignAffairs about why the next crisis is likely to be more dangerous than the last, and why Washington may struggle to contain it. A🧵… (1): https://t.co/fAako7StTL

— Elizabeth Threlkeld (@ethrelkeld) May 4, 2026

Key points raised by Elizabeth Threlkeld

1. Earlier, the world feared that India would launch an attack and Pakistan would respond with tactical nuclear weapons. Now, however, both countries have heavily invested in drones, long-range missiles, air defence systems, electronic warfare and precision-strike weapons. As a result, they can now wage war even without using nuclear weapons.

2. Because of this, future warfare could become rapid, deep and spread across multiple fronts. It could include cyberattacks as well as conventional military strikes.

3. A minor mistake by one country could be interpreted by the other as a major attack. The time available for taking decisions would also be extremely limited.

4. During previous wars, both countries would carry out limited attacks for some time to send a message while keeping the damage under control. However, next time both nations may attempt to achieve their military objectives on the battlefield before any mediation takes place. This could cause the situation to spiral out of control very quickly.