We present a combined analytical and numerical study of the instabilities of a pair of parallel unequal-strength vortices. We extend the analyses of a vortex in an external strain field (Crow, AIAA J. vol. 8, 1970, p. 2172; Widnall et al., J. Fluid Mech. vol. 66, 1974, p. 35) to include the orbital motion of the vortex pair. For counter-rotating pairs, the classic Crow-type periodic displacement perturbations are unstable for all vortex strength ratios, with fastest-growing wavelengths several times the vortex spacing. For co-rotating pairs, the orbital motion acts to suppress instability due to displacement perturbations. Instabilities in this case arise for elliptic perturbations at wavelengths that scale with the vortex core size. We also examine the influence of a second vortex pair by extending Crouch's (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 350, 1997, p. 311) analysis. Numerical results from a spectral initial-value code with subgrid-scale modelling agree with the growth rates from the theoretical models. Computations reveal the nonlinear evolution at late times, including wrapping and ring-rejection behaviour observed in experiments. A pair of co-rotating Gaussian vortices perturbed by noise develops elliptic instabilities, leading to the formation of vorticity bridges between the two vortices. The bridging is a prelude to vortex merger. Analytic, computational and experimental results agree well at circulation Reynolds numbers of order $10^5$.