S Jaishankar Phd Thesis Info

Jaishankar’s approach was deeply empirical and policy-oriented, reflecting his training under influential strategists like K. Subrahmanyam. He rejected purely mathematical game theory models of deterrence in favor of a political-historical analysis. The thesis meticulously examined the 1971 war and the emerging nuclear programs of Pakistan and China to demonstrate how fear of escalation had already begun constraining conventional military options. By integrating neorealist theory (which focuses on the anarchic structure of the international system) with regional case studies, he built a hybrid framework. This framework acknowledged that while the structure of anarchy forces states to seek security, the specific history of a region—its rivalries, border disputes, and cultural narratives—dictates how that security is pursued. This methodological pragmatism foreshadowed his later diplomatic style: theory guided by ground-level reality.

At its heart, Jaishankar’s thesis tackled a central dilemma of the Cold War era: could the superpower logic of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) be applied to a regional context like South Asia? He argued that it could not be transplanted directly. Unlike the US-USSR dyad, which was characterized by geographical distance and ideological parity, the India-Pakistan-China triangle was marked by proximity, asymmetry in conventional forces, and low-intensity conflict. Jaishankar posited that deterrence in this “regional context” was inherently more fragile and crisis-prone. He introduced the concept of a "minimum credible deterrent"—not as a static arsenal, but as a dynamic political tool designed to prevent escalation while preserving space for diplomacy. This was a distinctly Indian realist argument: nuclear weapons were not instruments of war-winning, but of war-prevention in a hostile neighborhood. s jaishankar phd thesis

From Nuclear Deterrence to Civilian Diplomacy: The Enduring Relevance of S. Jaishankar’s Doctoral Thesis The thesis meticulously examined the 1971 war and