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I know this won't happen (well, I'm fairly positive, I should say), but what is foreign response if two, close set nations, such as India and Pakistan should c

I know this won't happen (well, I'm fairly positive, I should say), but what is foreign response if two, close set nations, such as India and Pakistan should choose to use a nuclear option on each other. Or North Korea and South Korea. Not on anyone else, but just on each other. I realize this is a bit of a naive question, before the criticisms come in, but I'm more curious about answers rather than insults, if you don't mind.

merpnderp 8y ago
The Korean Peninsula conflict is different. The US keeps soldiers there to make sure that any conflict started by N. Korea is also an explicit attack on the US. So nuking US soldiers would likely mean getting nuked in return. On a side note, this agreement is likely all that keeps S. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan from deploying their own nuclear weapons.
yodon 8y ago
The key is to read up on something called "Nuclear Winter". The impact of the next nuclear conflict is likely to be felt much more broadly than just across a single border.
- merpnderp 8y ago
  A few dozen air bursts over India and Pakistan would not start any sort of nuclear winter. It would kill hundreds of millions directly and indirectly and crush the global economy, and cause immeasurable suffering. But global temps would likely be barely affected.
noir_lord 8y ago
They'd both be pariahs for a considerable amount of time (decades possibly), in fact from a global point of view it might actually be better to not fire back after a limited (theatre) level attack, your opponent would destroy any credibility they had entirely. Just the optics of the US or EU doing business with a country that lobbed a nuke at a democracy (I'm assuming it's Pakistan that fires in this scenario because honestly that is the more likely first strike, India has a firmly stated policy of no first use). The Pakistani system is considerably more fractured and much less under control with almost parallel systems of government between the military leaders and civilian leaders. They are pretty much the worst case scenario after NK having nukes and in some ways worse, NK doesn't have an ongoing relationship with religious fundamentalists at every level.
- tomatotomato37 8y ago
  It could be interesting to speculate what would happen in response to the fallout drifting over China & southern Russia. I could see both nations start raiding India/Pakistan with conventional forces just out of spite
  - writepub 8y ago
    I don't know about Pakistan, but the Indian military is not a trivial adversary for China/Russia to "raid". Russia also sees no benefit to raiding India, as the two have historically been closely allied. Also, how practical is unprovokedly "raiding" a nuclear power that has shown a willingness to use nukes? Are you assuming the nukes get spent in one conflict? The stockpiles held by either probably suffices multiple wars.

merpnderp 8y ago

The Korean Peninsula conflict is different. The US keeps soldiers there to make sure that any conflict started by N. Korea is also an explicit attack on the US. So nuking US soldiers would likely mean getting nuked in return. On a side note, this agreement is likely all that keeps S. Korea, Japan, and Taiwan from deploying their own nuclear weapons.

yodon 8y ago

The key is to read up on something called "Nuclear Winter". The impact of the next nuclear conflict is likely to be felt much more broadly than just across a single border.

merpnderp 8y ago
A few dozen air bursts over India and Pakistan would not start any sort of nuclear winter. It would kill hundreds of millions directly and indirectly and crush the global economy, and cause immeasurable suffering. But global temps would likely be barely affected.

noir_lord 8y ago

They'd both be pariahs for a considerable amount of time (decades possibly), in fact from a global point of view it might actually be better to not fire back after a limited (theatre) level attack, your opponent would destroy any credibility they had entirely. Just the optics of the US or EU doing business with a country that lobbed a nuke at a democracy (I'm assuming it's Pakistan that fires in this scenario because honestly that is the more likely first strike, India has a firmly stated policy of no first use). The Pakistani system is considerably more fractured and much less under control with almost parallel systems of government between the military leaders and civilian leaders. They are pretty much the worst case scenario after NK having nukes and in some ways worse, NK doesn't have an ongoing relationship with religious fundamentalists at every level.

tomatotomato37 8y ago
It could be interesting to speculate what would happen in response to the fallout drifting over China & southern Russia. I could see both nations start raiding India/Pakistan with conventional forces just out of spite
- writepub 8y ago
  I don't know about Pakistan, but the Indian military is not a trivial adversary for China/Russia to "raid". Russia also sees no benefit to raiding India, as the two have historically been closely allied. Also, how practical is unprovokedly "raiding" a nuclear power that has shown a willingness to use nukes? Are you assuming the nukes get spent in one conflict? The stockpiles held by either probably suffices multiple wars.