Chalkboard Politics: How Did the 2025 India-Pakistan Conflict Change Global Politics?

In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, the team examines the causes, escalation, and aftermath of the 2025 India-Pakistan crisis. Professor Niloufer Siddiqui and Professor Sushant Singh first address last year’s Pahalgam attack in India-administered Kashmir and analyze how the conflict between the two nuclear-armed states escalated in unprecedented ways. The discussion then explores how the “fog of war,” media environment, and external actors played a role in both escalation and the eventual ceasefire. Our guests then consider the broader geopolitical consequences of the conflict, including implications for India’s doctrine of strategic autonomy, shared resources like the Indus River system, and relations with the U.S. The conflict has unexpected consequences for the region and beyond, especially Pakistan’s mediation in the Iran war, its defense pact with Saudi Arabia, and its current conflict with Afghanistan. Overall, this episode analyzes whether the 2025 India-Pakistan crisis reflects a continuation of long-standing patterns in India-Pakistan relations or a turning point in regional order—and the effects of these events on global politics.