After four days of intense hostilities and concerns that the two countries would engage in an all-out war, the US played a decisive active role in mediating a ceasefire between India and Pakistan over the disputed Kashmir region.

But foreign policy experts and diplomats from both countries believe that though the de-escalation might mark the end of the two countries' worst military confrontation in 25 years, the foreign-brokered ceasefire will not lead easily to an enduring peace.

US mediation provided a useful off-ramp for both nations, according to diplomatic analysts from both countries. "The US has played a helpful role in getting Pakistan to agree to a ceasefire," Meera Shankar, India's former envoy to the US, told DW.

"The US leveraged IMF conditionalities and much more to hasten the end of hostilities," said Ajay Bisaria, a former Indian high commissioner to Pakistan. "India has established a new doctrinal normal of zero tolerance to terrorism, which has garnered US acceptance."

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Analysts on the Pakistani side agreed. "Pakistan and India both needed a ceasefire but neither country wanted to be the one that asked for it first due to national pride and leaders' egos. The US helped provide cover for the decision," Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador currently senior fellow at Washington DC's Hudson Institute, told DW.

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