Sam Gardiner

Sam Gardiner is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a visiting professor at the National Defense University. In the following viewpoint, he describes his experiences with war games—simulations carried out by military services and war colleges—that seek to explore what might happen in a real conflict between India and Pakistan. He argues that these “games” are good prognosticators of real events and almost always end in a catastrophic nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan. Gardiner asserts that many Indian and Pakistani leaders still believe it is possible to wage a small conventional conflict and underestimate the risk that such conflict could lead to nuclear war. He argues that the United States cannot do much to prevent nuclear escalation once a war starts...