The violent crisis between India and Pakistan is exactly the kind of international emergency that would once have prompted a full-on US diplomatic drive to cool tempers and head off a wider war.

The broader context, according to Mearsheimer, is far more alarming. He warned that the India-Pakistan conflict is dangerously unstable, and noted that the United States has historically intervened to de-escalate tensions.

But while the US has acted as a mediator in previous crises in South Asia, exerting a calming influence that has helped to avert outright war, Washington may be too distracted by Ukraine and Gaza to be able to resolve the India-Pakistan clash,