The key questions raised in this study are: (i) Why did India launch its sustained exercise in coercive diplomacy to try and compel Pakistan to abandon its support for terrorist groups attacking Indian targets?; and (ii) Why did India decide to terminate the exercise ten months later? Implicit in the first is the corollary question: was there a real intent to go to war? Or was it all just a giant bluff? An integral aspect of the questions posed above is to what extent did nuclear weapons exercise an influence on the decision? The focus is on methodology and the state of our knowledge with regard to the availability of reliable evidence.