There’s concern in Pakistan over the strategic partnership between the United States and India. Starting with President Bill Clinton’s administration, there is a bipartisan political-strategic consensus in Washington over closer, multifaceted ties with New Delhi that has survived 24 years and three U.S. presidents. In India, the growing relations with the U.S., which began with Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] and continued through the two terms of Dr. Manmohan Singh of the Congress, are seeing India coming even closer to the U.S. under the current prime minister, Narendra Modi.
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In 2001-02, India’s decision to mobilize its army was a political one, which was war-gamed after the mobilization began. Also, while it was India that began to mobilize, Pakistan’s reactive mobilization was complete and in place much before India’s because of shorter interior lines. Indian war-games indicated no real advantage of opening hostilities against Pakistan and there was much confusion about how exactly to go about punishing Pakistan (see, Alex Stoler’s paper for Stimson Center: To the Brink: Indian Decision-Making and the 2001-2002 Standoff). India again relied on signaling to the U.S., as did Pakistan. The U.S. satellites were monitoring the situation and at one point, under U.S. pressure, India sent Lt. Gen. Kapil Vij, commander 2 Corps, on leave after the general was found to have deployed his troops too close to the international border.
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