The escalating conflict between India and Pakistan could be offering the world a first real glimpse into how advanced Chinese military technology performs against proven Western hardware – and Chinese defense stocks are already surging.

How India threads the diplomatic needle - courting favour with Trump over issues like trade while asserting its own interests in the Kashmir conflict - will depend in large part on domestic politics and could determine the future prospects for conflict in Kashmir.

India and Pakistan, South Asia’s rival nuclear powers, are on the brink of all-out war. Such a conflict would be catastrophic, not only for the region’s 2 billion people, but for the entire world.