How This India-Pakistan Conflict Will Shape the Next One

At this point, you’ve probably read 1,001 post-mortem analyses of the India-Pakistan conflict, desperately searching for some new nugget or data point that helps you understand this brief, but intense clash between these two South Asian rivals.In this sea of hot takes, one essay stands out both for its analytical clarity and its wisdom. That piece was written by the scholar Joshua T. White and it’s simply titled, “Lessons for the next India-Pakistan war.”It was published by the Brookings Institution, where Josh is a non-resident fellow with the Foreign Policy program. Josh is also professor of the practice of international affairs at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C.Josh has served at the White House as senior advisor and director for South Asian affairs at the National Security Council. And he’s also worked at the Pentagon, where he helped get the U.S.-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative off the ground.To talk more about his piece and the recent conflict, Josh rejoins Milan on the podcast this week. He and Milan discuss how the global debate on “attribution” has tilted decisively in India’s favor, troubling new precedents about military target selection, the depth of Pakistani information operations, and the widespread use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles in the recent conflict. Plus, the two preview Josh’s forthcoming book, Vigilante Islamists: Religious Parties and Anti-State Violence in Pakistan.

Episode notes:

1. Joshua T. White, “Lessons for the next India-Pakistan war,” Brookings Institution, May 14, 2025.

2. “Operation Sindoor and South Asia’s Uncertain Future (with Christopher Clary),” Grand Tamasha, May 14, 2025.

3. “US views of India-China ties and their impact on the US-India partnership (with Lisa Curtis, Joshua T. White, and Tanvi Madan),” Brookings “Global India” podcast, February 7, 2024.

4. “U.S.-India Ties After the ‘2+2’ Summit (with Joshua White),” Grand Tamasha, April 27, 2022.