Since 2021, the Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme has facilitated several Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogues on nuclear crisis prevention, management, and de-escalation in South Asia at the backdrop of heightened regional tensions.
South Asia is a key regional focus of the Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme. Track 1 India-Pakistan nuclear dialogues remain suspended due to persistent mutual distrust, constraining formal bilateral engagement at a time when escalation risks in South Asia remain high. Yet dialogue continues to offer a viable mechanism for managing these risks, particularly during crises.
Recent developments have further complicated the regional security environment. The May 2025 crisis demonstrated how India-Pakistan tensions increasingly unfold across multiple interconnected domains, including air, land, sea, cyber, and space. It also highlighted the growing importance of strategic partnerships in shaping perceptions, crisis escalation dynamics, and de-escalation. As military and strategic activity expands into new domains, previously implicit redlines may shift, multiply, or remain unarticulated, increasing the risk of nuclear escalation.
Since 2021, BASIC’s Nuclear Responsibilities Approach and third-party facilitated dialogue method has provided a unique framework for addressing these challenges through responsibility-based dialogues and research in South Asia. Over the years, BASIC has facilitated several Track 2 and Track 1.5 dialogues with the Indian and Pakistani nuclear policy communities with a focus on regional crisis prevention, management, and de-escalation practices. Other topics have included nuclear risk reduction in South Asia, nuclear risks and emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs), and nuclear risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific.
Current Project:
Our latest project (2025 – 2026), ‘Addressing Future Nuclear Crisis Scenarios in South Asia Through a Responsibility-Based Approach’ seeks to expand and strengthen the regime of restraint and responsibility within South Asia by exploring how a responsibility-based approach can reduce nuclear risks in future India-Pakistan crises, identifying likely triggers, dynamics, and de-escalation pathways.
The Programme has collaborated closely with the Centre for Security, Strategy and Policy Research (CSSPR) at the University of Lahore and the Institute of Peace & Conflict Studies (IPCS) in New Delhi. In addition, the Programme has collaborated with / hosted joint events with Air University Islamabad, the Centre for Aerospace Power and Strategic Studies (CAPSS) New Delhi, the Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) New Delhi, the National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad, and Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad.
We are grateful for the generous support of the UK Government’s Counter Proliferation and Arms Control Centre (CPACC).
In the latest series of articles reflecting on the anniversary of the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, Shaza Arif explores how the crisis highlights the dangerous stability-instability paradox in South Asia, where nuclear deterrence prevents full scale war but simultaneously enables recurring limited conventional clashes, escalating the risks of miscalculation, arms races, and uncontrolled escalation under the nuclear shadow.
This report is a product of two Track 2/1.5 dialogues involving two crisis simulations that were facilitated by BASIC’s Responsibilities and Global Governance Programme with participants from Indian and Pakistani nuclear policy communities in Bahrain in February 2026.
In the latest series of articles reflecting on the anniversary of the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, Syed Ali Zia Jaffery examines how misperceptions, weak crisis-management mechanisms, emerging technologies, and geographical proximity could make future India-Pakistan crises dangerously prone to nuclear brinkmanship.
In this report, Mhairi McClafferty explores the central role of perceptions in shaping both escalation and de-escalation during the May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis.
In the latest of a series of articles assessing recent hostilities between India and Pakistan,…
In the latest of a series of articles assessing recent hostilities between India and Pakistan,…
In the latest of a series of articles assessing recent hostilities between India and Pakistan,…
BASIC’s Non-Resident Fellow Dr Rabia Akhtar argues that while the recent Pahalgam crisis between India and Pakistan may have ended in a ceasefire, there is little room for comfort. The crisis has exposed a dangerous undercurrent that threatens the fragile strategic stability of South Asia.