This is why war in the pacific is a disturbingly realistic possibility. There's no plausible scenario under which such a war is existential for either side and

This is why war in the pacific is a disturbingly realistic possibility. There's no plausible scenario under which such a war is existential for either side and so no plausible path to nuclear escalation. But this could lead to a very protracted conventional war we haven't seen in a long time. Game theory is weird and counterintuitive.