Considerable confusion has been caused in the last few years by the loose usage of the term ‘Limited War’. After the Kaluchak terrorist attack on 14 May 2002, a columnist wrote in the Hindustan Times of 31 May 2002 that India was considering tough options including ‘Limited War’ ‘covert operations’ based on a ‘new strategy’ against terrorism and coercive diplomacy. Another gentleman was nearer the mark in The Statesman of 24 June 2002 when he defined limited war as a full-fledged conventional war as opposed to a nuclear one.

            The possibility of a nuclear war between two NWS (Nuclear Weapon States) arose in October 1962 when the USSR deployed nuclear missiles in Cuba. Although the USA’s arsenal of 5000 nuclear warheads gave it a 17:1 superiority over the Soviet arsenal of about 300, the possibility of even one Soviet missile getting through would have caused unbearable damage. The possibility of this catastrophe brought home to all concerned that a nuclear exchange must never be allowed to take place. But, it was only in 1985 that the Reagan-Gorbachev declaration – “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be foughtâ€