India redefined strategy by treating terrorism as an act of war: Report

Tel Aviv, Dec 2 (IANS) India’s readiness to impose costs on an ecosystem that enables terrorism without waiting for external validation created new opportunities for enhancing Israel-India strategic coordination, a report said on Tuesday.

It added that this marks the emergence of a new Indian playbook—one that the world cannot ignore.

“These shifts matter for Israel. India’s new deterrence posture of explicitly rejecting nuclear blackmail, collapsing the line between proxy terror and state responsibility, and demonstrating a willingness to strike early and with precision mirrors many of the principles Israel has relied on for decades,” John Spencer, the Executive Director at the US-based Urban Warfare Institute and Lauren Dagan Amoss, an international academic expert on India’s foreign and security policy, wrote for an Israeli think tank Begin–Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, affiliated with Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

“Both states face adversaries that use terrorism as a strategic tool under the umbrella of nuclear ambiguity. India’s performance in Sindoor, especially its defeat of Chinese-origin PL-15 missiles and HQ-9/P air defenses, provides operational insights that are directly relevant to Israel as Chinese technology expands across the Middle East. The emerging convergence is not rhetorical; it is doctrinal,” they added.

According to the experts, for nearly a decade, India has been abandoning the doctrine of strategic restraint. The pattern of responses to major Pakistan-based terrorist attacks, including Uri in 2016, Balakot in 2019, and Pahalgam in 2025, underscored that predictable retaliation was not deterring cross-border terrorism but was enabling it. Restraint, once viewed as stabilizing, had become strategically risky.

“Indian strategic restraint was designed to prevent escalation with Pakistan. In practice, it did the opposite. Terror groups backed by Pakistan’s security agencies exploited the firebreak between terrorism and state aggression on the assumption that India would avoid decisive retaliation or cross-border action. Limited responses produced predictable patterns, and predictability invited more violence,” said the experts.

Spencer and Amoss noted that India has shifted from its earlier approach to a doctrine of compellence, treating major attacks as acts of war. The move was made explicit during Operation Sindoor, when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that major terrorist attacks would be met with a wartime response rather than handled as matters for law enforcement.

“The government no longer waits for lengthy attribution cycles or international pressure before acting. Pre-emption is considered a sovereign right. During Operation Sindoor, India struck early and deep, using long-range fire, drone swarms, loitering munitions, and real-time fused intelligence. The operation broke the old template and signalled a permanent doctrinal change,” they mentioned.

--IANS

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