De-escalation or Delusion : India-Pakistan, Global Powers, and the Future of South Asian Security

South Asian subcontinent, a region teeming with history, a vibrant culture, and an ascending population, where it struggles to exist on the edge of global turbulence in an increasingly multipolar world. The ongoing rivalry between India's and Pakistan's nuclear-armed status is still a significant flashpoint, and as its trajectory changes due to newly formed perceptions and strategies of the United States, China, Russia, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) the situation has escalated but further exposes the precarious nature of this equilibrium that is contested by domestic rivalries and variable external influences that define South Asia's conundrum of security. The escalating nature of regional friction in early May 2025 has brought into focus the armament of South Asia and the concomitant risk of miscalculation due to its increasing potential to draw in multiple external forces. The India-Pakistan relationship has, since independence in 1947, perpetually been defined by mutual suspicion and hostility....