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In the wake of the May 1998 nuclear weapons tests conducted in South Asia, Pakistan wrestles with its national nuclear policy. Pakistan and the Bomb captures the nation's attitudes towards these tests by introducing the results of an in-depth public opinion survey conducted in the months leading up to this historical event.
This timely and thorough volume uses the comprehensive study to examine the factors that brought nuclear arms to South Asia. This research reveals that a majority of Pakistani elite favor an open national policy on nuclear weapons instead of total renunciation or weaponization. Editors Samina Ahmed and David Cortright cite the fear of nuclear threat from India as the principal factor underlying Pakistani support for the nuclear opinion.
In addition to explaining how Pakistan reached its current state of nuclear competition with India, Pakistan and the Bomb explores the conditions that may persuade Pakistani elites to change their opinion on nuclear weaponization. Improved relations with India and a renunciation of the Indian nuclear program as well as settlement of the Kashmir dispute would persuade Pakistanis to forgo the nuclear option.
Pakistan and the Bomb democratizes the debate over nuclear weapons in South Asia by highlighting a new generation of young Pakistani authors. The volume explains the nation's journey to nuclear weapons capability from several perspectives, including the experience of three wars with India that culminate in Pakistan's dismemberment in 1971, the decision to build the bomb, the history of its development, the desire to overcome social and economic backwardness and the inconsistent and often troubled relationship with the United States. By providing the background for the nation's decision to develop a nuclear weapons capability, Pakistan and the Bomb offers a new vision for evaluating the nuclear standoff in South Asia and identifies the steps that can lead to a secure, weapons-free future.
“International concern about nuclear weapons development and the possible outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan is more than justified. Tensions between these two geographically contiguous countries could result in yet another conventional war, and any armed conflict between the now nuclear-capable adversaries carries the possibility, however remote, of nuclear war. The goals of nuclear nonproliferation and conflict prevention in South Asia are thus extremely important and merit priority international attention.” —Fourth Freedom
After the May 1998 nuclear tests by India and Pakistan there has been an obvious change in the way nuclear weapons are looked at in the South Asian region. The discussions of nuclear ambiguity and keeping the option open have given way to writings on nuclear doctrine andthe path nuclear weaponisation will take. This book was written before the tests and this would suggest that it has been overtaken by events. But the book has much to offer, given the haphazard and ill-thought out way that nuclearisation was carried out by both states. —Contemporary South Asia
Samina Ahmed is a senior research analyst with the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad, and had published numerous scholarly articles in the United States, Pakistan, India, Bagladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
David Cortright has served as President of the Fourth Freedom Forum since 1992. He is also a visiting fellow at the Joan B. Kroc Institue for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, and is the author of Peace Works: The Citizen’s Role in Ending the Cold War (1993) and the coeditor, with Amitabh Mattoo, of India and the Bomb: Public Opinion and Nuclear Options (Notre Dame Press, 1996).