This is now a game of spinning narratives

With India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers, on the brink of an armed conflict, Moeed Yusuf, a Pakistani-American and associate vice-president, Asia Centre, United States Institute of Peace, has just published a prescient book, titled Brokering Peace in Nuclear Environments: US Crisis Management in South Asia. He speaks to Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa about what needs to be done to prevent a no-holds-barred war between the two countries. Edited excerpts:

Q How serious is the current situation between India and Pakistan?

A. This is the first time after the Kargil war of 1999 that India and Pakistan are likely to end up in a military confrontation of some kind.