The act of pursuing and engaging fleeing armed adversaries (such as militants or insurgents) across a border or into a neighbouring State's territory, immediately after an attack, to neutralise them before they reach safety.
- In international law, "hot pursuit" is most clearly recognised at sea: under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a coastal State may chase a foreign ship that has violated its laws from its waters into the high seas, but the pursuit must be continuous and must stop on entering another State's territorial waters.
- On land there is no general settled right of cross-border hot pursuit; entering another State's territory without consent raises sovereignty and international-law questions, so States rely on self-defence arguments and limited operations.
- India has conducted limited cross-border ground operations against insurgents, notably along the Myanmar frontier in 2015 against north-east insurgent camps, conducted by the Army, often discussed in the context of hot pursuit (carried out with coordination, not as a doctrine of unilateral incursion).
- Cross-border counter-terror actions such as the 2016 LoC strikes are framed by India as pre-emptive and limited, distinct from a routine doctrine of hot pursuit into another country.
- Operationally, hot pursuit demands rapid intelligence, mobility and clear rules of engagement, balanced against the human-rights and sovereignty constraints of operating near or across borders.
Hot pursuit links border management, counter-insurgency and international law; the maritime UNCLOS rule and the 2015 Myanmar cross-border operation are commonly referenced facts.
Maritime hot pursuit is a recognised legal right under UNCLOS with strict conditions; cross-land-border hot pursuit has no equivalent general right and depends on consent or self-defence justifications. Hot pursuit (chasing a fleeing enemy) is conceptually distinct from a planned surgical strike.
Chasing fleeing armed adversaries across a border right after an attack; clearly recognised at sea under UNCLOS, legally contested on land (for example the 2015 Myanmar operation).