ABSTRACT
The South Asian continent is home to one of the most hotly contested enduring dyadic rivalries in the international system. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the partition of the South Asian continent in 1947, with numerous violent clashes in between. The hotly contested rivalry took on a more contentious and potentially devastating undercurrent with the introduction of nuclear weapons into the region, as India crossed the threshold in 1974, with the Smiling Buddha fission test, and Pakistan in 1998 with Chagai-I. Since the dyad went nuclear in 1998, the rivals have fought in Dras-Kargil in 1999, in the shadow of Kashmir, which is still a disputed and contested territory.
