The Stability-Instability Paradox: How Nuclear Weapons Incentivize Irregular Warfare

January 12, 2024 00:53:45
The Stability-Instability Paradox: How Nuclear Weapons Incentivize Irregular Warfare
Irregular Warfare Podcast
The Stability-Instability Paradox: How Nuclear Weapons Incentivize Irregular Warfare

Jan 12 2024 | 00:53:45

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Show Notes

Be sure to visit the Irregular Warfare Initiative website to see all of the new articles, podcast episodes, and other content the IWI team is publishing!

Do nuclear weapons play a stabilizing role by discouraging nuclear-armed states to go to war with one another? If so, are these states then incentivized to pursue their objectives vis-à-vis one another by indirect means and proxy conflict? These are the parallel dynamics described as the stability-instability paradox. Our guests on this episode, Professor Sumit Ganguly and Dr. Tricia Bacon, describe the theoretical underpinnings of this paradox and explore a real-world example—the 1999 Kargil conflict and the broader pattern of the India-Pakistan rivalry—to trace the impact of nuclear weapons on irregular warfare.

 

Intro music: "Unsilenced" by Ketsa

Outro music: "Launch" by Ketsa

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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