Summary
For a variety of political and organizational reasons, India has a nuclear force management system that is largely incapable of handling the country’s needs. Managing India’s Nuclear Forces examines why things are as they are and what management changes are needed to improve matters.
 
When India became a nuclear weapons state, the military was actually excluded from policy-level force management —the political leadership maintained control, laying the groundwork for a poorly functioning system. The longstanding vigorous public discourse that ensued has been shaped in large part by political factors —international prestige and domestic confidence.
 
Author Verghese Koithara explains and evaluates India’s nuclear force management against a backdrop of similar information available with respect to other nuclear states, encouraging a broad public conversation that can perhaps act as a catalyst for change.