In May 2025, India and Pakistan engaged in another round of fighting in their long-running militarized rivalry. This time was different. The fighting crossed some significant military red lines and seemed to be escalating, before the two sides reached an unexpected ceasefire.
Fast-forward to April 2026: India, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a long-time personal ally of Donald Trump, is suddenly on the outs with the United States. And Pakistan is taking the lead on diplomacy and peace talks between the United States and Iran.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, the team examines the escalation and aftermath of the 2025 India-Pakistan crisis, as well as the broader implications for regional and global politics. The discussion also highlights Pakistan’s unexpected role on the world stage as the lead mediator in the 2026 U.S.-Iran war, and the announcement of a temporary ceasefire on April 7, 2026. Our guests are Professor Niloufer Siddiqui, associate professor of political science at Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, SUNY Albany, whose research focuses on political violence, religion, and electoral politics, particularly in South Asia; and Professor Sushant Singh, lecturer in South Asian Studies at Yale University’s MacMillan School of Public Policy and a journalist with extensive experience covering the region’s political and military dynamics.
This episode explores the domestic and nationalist factors that fueled last year’s fighting between two neighbors and long-time rivals, including the role of social media and disinformation. It asks whether the 2025 crisis reflects a continuation of long-standing patterns in India-Pakistan relations or a turning point in the regional order – and what it reveals about escalation risks in a nuclearized and increasingly unstable geopolitical environment. And our guests explain the unexpected ceasefire between India and Pakistan last May, and why they expect a repeat of the May 2025 crisis in the future.
This episode has a lot to tell us about military conflict, nationalism, and diplomacy today, not only in India and Pakistan but around the world. You can listen to the episode here, or wherever you get your podcasts. All the Chalkboard Politics episodes can be found here.
Zara Williamson is a senior at Columbia College and the lead producer for the Chalkboard Politics podcast.
Elizabeth N. Saunders is professor of political science at Columbia University, and the author of “The Insiders’ Game: How Elites Make War and Peace” (Princeton University Press, 2024).
