Field Marshal Asim Munir’s latest nuclear outburst marks a chilling escalation in Pakistan’s strategic rhetoric. Speaking on American soil and quite possibly to his principal benefactor in Washington, he declared that if Pakistan faced existential defeat in a future war with India, it would “take half the world down” with it. This was not a calculated reminder of deterrence; it was a public signal that the country’s nuclear arsenal might no longer be guided by even the broad thresholds of rational use articulated by its military in the past.

For decades, Pakistan’s nuclear posture, however menacing, was couched in terms of certain red lines: major territorial loss, destruction of a large portion of its armed forces, economic strangulation, or severe internal destabilisation. These were, at least on paper, meant to convey that nuclear use was a last resort. The Pakistan Army chief’s statement discards such pretence. It presents Pakistan’s nuclear capability as a tool........

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