Pakistan, May 1 -- A year has passed since Pakistan and India last exchanged blows, and it is worth asking what each side has taken from the experience. Military anniversaries are usually occasions for patriotic commemoration. However, for states that think seriously about strategy, they ought to be something else: a moment to step back, to reckon with what happened, and to consider what it means for the road ahead. The war was triggered by India's cross-border strikes under Operation Sindoor and met with Pakistan's decisive counter-operation, Marka-e-Haq. The significance of that episode, however, lies less in the tactical exchanges themselves than in the very different reflections each side appears to have drawn from them.

New Delhi pa...