{"id":125742,"date":"2026-05-12T10:58:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125742"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:58:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T05:58:48","slug":"adaptive-deterrence-urged-to-counter-indias-hostile-posture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Leading strategic affairs experts cautioned Monday that while the deterrence equation with India may have held during last year\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1998875\">conflict,<\/a>\u00a0the region\u2019s strategic environment is becoming increasingly fragile. Therefore, they emphasised the need to keep deterrence credible and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That message came through at a book launch hosted by the Centre for International Strategic Studies (CISS) in Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts highlighted that regional stability is strained by tech shifts, disinformation, unresolved disputes, and India\u2019s push to normalise limited warfare under nuclear conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within that broader framing, advisers to the National Command Authority and Strategic Plans Division echoed a clear post-May 2025 conflict lesson, noting that Pakistan must keep deterrence credible and adaptive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The strongest note of caution came from retired Lt Gen. Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, an adviser to the National Command Authority and a key figure in Pakistan\u2019s nuclear establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said recent developments had exposed \u201cboth the strengths and vulnerabilities of deterrence stability,\u201d stressing the importance of \u201cresponsible nuclear stewardship and strategic restraint\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remarks by other experts suggested that nuclear strategists see deterrence less as a static equilibrium and more as a system requiring constant management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retired Gen Zubair Hayat, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, warned that fut\u00adure conflicts would increasingly inv\u00adolve \u201chybrid warfare, cyber capa\u00adb\u00adilities and narrative warfare\u201d alongside conventional military means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lt Gen Mazhar Jamil highlighted \u201cIndia\u2019s evolving offensive thinking\u201d as key to the shifting strategic context, urging Pakistan to keep a cohesive deterrence posture and avoid unnecessary escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His remarks suggested that Pakistani strategic planners expect future crises to test thresholds, apply pressure through limited military means and exploit compressed decision-making timelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retired Lt Gen Sarfraz Sattar, also an NCA adviser, echoed those concerns, saying future crises would require a precise understanding of adversary behaviour alongside \u201ccredible deterrence backed by coordinated political and military signalling\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former ambassador Zamir Akram, currently an SPD adviser, warned that India\u2019s posture was \u201cdeepening insecurity\u201d across the region. He argued that mistrust would continue to grow in the absence of \u201cmeaningful dialogue\u201d between the two sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Retired Brig Dr Zahir Kazmi, an SPD arms control adviser, said deterrence depends equally on \u201cstrategic communication, political resolve and cognitive resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CISS Executive Director Ali Sarwar Naqvi highlighted the region\u2019s volatility due to India\u2019s aggressive stance, emphasising the need for responsible statecraft, ongoing dialogue, and credible deterrence to maintain peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mushahid Hussain Sayed, an ex-chair of the Senate\u2019s foreign affairs panel, stressed the importance of intellectual debate in addressing these emerging security challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Leading strategic affairs experts cautioned Monday that while the deterrence equation with India may have held during last year\u2019s\u00a0conflict,\u00a0the region\u2019s strategic environment is becoming increasingly fragile. Therefore, they emphasised the need to keep deterrence credible and effective. That message came through at a book launch hosted by the Centre for International Strategic Studies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Leading strategic affairs experts cautioned Monday that while the deterrence equation with India may have held during last year\u2019s\u00a0conflict,\u00a0the region\u2019s strategic environment is becoming increasingly fragile. Therefore, they emphasised the need to keep deterrence credible and effective. That message came through at a book launch hosted by the Centre for International Strategic Studies [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-12T05:58:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-12T05:58:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-42-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/\",\"name\":\"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-42-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-12T05:58:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-12T05:58:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-42-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Untitled-design-42-3.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125742\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Adaptive deterrence urged to counter India\u2019s hostile posture - Nation","og_description":"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- Leading strategic affairs experts cautioned Monday that while the deterrence equation with India may have held during last year\u2019s\u00a0conflict,\u00a0the region\u2019s strategic environment is becoming increasingly fragile. 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