Abstract
The War in Middle East has been ‘Unprecedented’ in its scale and levels of destruction and also due to its impact across the globe. The escalation ladder is witnessing new methods and newer phenomena. The US-Israeli coalition attempts’ to achieve their strategic objectives, seem to have engulfed them into an ‘Escalation Trap’ from where they are finding it difficult to extricate. The Iranians have been extremely successful in expanding the rungs of escalation into the ‘Horizontal realm’ extending the conflict across the Middle East. The coalition capabilities, in the multi-domain, has resulted in an ‘Illusion of Control’ over the escalatory continuum which seems to have become more ‘Delusional’ as the conflict becomes protracted. Militaries, across the globe, are learning and adapting to the lessons of the ongoing conflict. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East and Operation SINDOOR in the Indian sub-continent have many subtle similarities. The article is an effort to compare the US-Iran war with a looming Indo-Pakistan conflict and the possibility of Pakistan adopting a course of action or modus operandi akin to the Iranians employing predominantly missiles and drones in their arsenal besides the threat in other domains of warfare, to engulf India into an Escalation Trap.
Keywords: Middle East Conflict, Escalation Trap, Illusion of Control, Cross-Domain Operations, Military Adaptation, Asymmetric Warfare
