Nuclear relations in South Asia
The strategic landscape of South Asia changed dramatically in 1998. With the reciprocal testing of nuclear weapons, India and Pakistan emerged from the world of threshold status to an overt posture which has yet to be fully defined. Each claims the status of a nuclear weapon state, yet the contours of that status are unclear. A number of important strategic issues have been raised by these dramatic events. This paper will attempt to examine the implications of this new posture for each country and for the region. First and foremost, the decisions to test nuclear weapons are a product of each individual state making a sovereign decision about its national security needs. Both have made clear for a number of years that their attitudes toward nuclear weapons-and by default, toward nuclear nonproliferation-will not be directed by outsiders. They have rejected the global norms that oppose the further proliferation of nuclear weapons, embodied in the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and that embrace the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons, captured in Article VI of that treaty. The decisions reached in New Delhi and lslamabad have been questioned by many, but the tests cannot be undone and it now falls on both countries to make further decisions about what strategies will best serve them, and what obligations they must now assume. Issues such as strategic planning, weaponization, deployment, and command and control, which heretofore were relegated to the back burner, may no longer be deferred.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 3410
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-132729; GJ1200000; ON: DE00003410
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Meeting of the Tokyo Forum of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, Hiroshima, Japan, December 18-19, 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Nuclear electric power and the proliferation of nuclear weapon states
Supporting the President's Arms Control and Nonproliferation Agenda: Transparency and Verification for Nuclear Arms Reductions