Summary
This book examines nuclear proliferation in the two major threshold countries in the Indian subcontinent, India and Pakistan. Both countries are at the forefront of international concern over weapons proliferation for being involved in nuclear activities which could provide the capability to produce nuclear weapons, and for having retained the political and diplomatic option to do so. The subject is tackled from an international relations viewpoint. It looks at the issue of proliferation in terms of the evolution in the two countries’ perception of national, regional, and international security imperatives. Each country’s civil nuclear program and its arms control diplomacy is also examined to see whether they facilitate or inhibit a decision to proliferation, and it what way. The study concludes that while India and Pakistan are strongly determined to retain their nuclear option, and that they are both engaged in perfecting this option, neither country is yet committed to a weapons program. thus there is a nuclear stalemate in the subcontinent and any change of policy would take into consideration complex political, strategic, economic, and diplomatic interests. These interests have so far discouraged nuclear proliferation. The future depends on national, regional and international stability on the one hand, and global perceptions of nuclear deterrence and trends in the nuclear arms race and disarmament on the other.