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India and Pakistan: Taking a Deep Breath

India and Pakistan: Taking a Deep Breath
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksFebruary 28, 2019
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan made a dramatic plea this week to ease tensions with his country's neighbor and rival: "I ask India: with the weapons you have and the weapons we have, can we really afford such a miscalculation? If this escalates, things will no longer be in my control or in Modi's."

His fear is justified. This confrontation between nuclear-armed neighbors began with a terrorist attack that killed 40 Indian soldiers in disputed Kashmir, advanced with India's launch of the first cross-border airstrikes since 1971, and escalated when Pakistan claimed to have shot down two Indian fighter planes and held captive an Indian pilot.

Khan has released the Indian pilot, but this story isn't over. It's an election year in India, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi can't afford to appear weak-willed. Pakistan's government, its military, and the various militant groups that operate on its territory don't share the same goals, and there are still tens of thousands of troops mobilized on both sides of the Indian-Pakistani border.

For a deeper dive, watch this video : Pakistan vs India by the numbers

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