The Nuclear Shadow Over South Asia 1947 To The Present

This collection of seminal articles illustrates the reasons for the spiraling nuclear race in the Asian subcontinent and introduces the principal debates in the field. Authors discuss whether the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the South Asian powers has raised the likelihood of a nuclear war in the subcontinent or reduced the chance of a conventional war breaking out. They examine whether a small nuclear arsenal or a nuclear triad, as declared by India, is suitable for bringing stability to the region, as well as the risk of an accidental nuclear conflagration. The first section charts the evolution of nuclear programmes on the basis of realpolitik, and the second section analyses nuclear policies on the basis of religious and cultural ethos. A few essays turn the spotlight on the role of external powers in accelerating, decelerating and mediating the ongoing nuclear tension between India and Pakistan.

Outraged conscience, careful argument, poetry and political analysis -- gathered here is the diversity of voices, traditions, and approaches that are weaving themselves into an anti-nuclear and peace movement in India and Pakistan. In these essays, written before, during, and after the May 1998 nuclear explosions, scholars and activists from both countries attempt to understand and challenge the nuclearisation of South Asia. The essays are an act of resistance against governments that see nuclear weapons as a currency of power, as symbols of prestige, as sources of security, as moments of glory in an otherwise dismal contemporary history.The collection includes Mahatma Gandhi's response to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and recent writings by renowned scholars Eqbal Ahmad, Rajni Kothari, Ashis Nandy, and Amartya Sen, as well as Arundhati Roy and veteran anti-nuclear activists, academics and journalists. The volume also contains the texts of many of the historic public statements protesting the May 1998 nuclear tests which helped mobilise public opposition to the bomb in South Asia. There is a resource guide to books, films and websites on nuclear weapons, as well as information on many organisations now working on this issue.

An important and critical re-evaluation of South Asia's post-tests nuclear politics. Unlike other books, this volume emphasises the political dimension of South Asia's nuclear weapons, explains how the bombs are used as politico-strategic assets rather than pure battlefield weapons and how they are employed by India and Pakistan in an extremely complex and competitive South Asian strategic landscape.

The essays included in this volume focus on conventional war on land, sea and air fought by the states of South Asia and their impact on the host societies and economies. The authors are drawn from academia and the military in India and Pakistan, as well as from outside the subcontinent in order to give a wide perspective. In the introduction the editors describe the changing contours of warfare in South Asia, and the similarities and dissimilarities with warfare in the Middle East and South East Asia. The volume highlights the influence of extra-regional powers like China, Russia and the US in providing arms, munitions and shaping the texture of military doctrines and force structures of the South Asian powers.

Unconventional war is an umbrella term which includes insurgencies, counter-insurgencies, terrorism and religious conflicts. Insurgencies and communal conflicts have become much more common in this region since 1947, and more people have died in South Asia due to unconventional wars than conventional warfare. The essays in this volume are organized in two sections. While the first section deals with insurgencies, counter-insurgencies and terrorism; the second section covers the religious aspects of the various intra-state conflicts which mar the multi-ethnic societies of South Asia.

This book explores how nuclear weapons influence conventional warfighting, through three case studies of countries not party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty: Pakistan, India, and Israel. The author examines how decision makers choose a preferred pattern of war management, as well as how these choices affect conflicts, suggesting that nuclear weaponization constitutes a clear change in the relative power of countries. This distribution of power within the international system expands or reduces the selection of strategies or war management patterns available to members of the international community. However, historic traumatic events like military defeats, countries’ self-images, and images of enemies form the perceptions of decision makers regarding material power and change thereof, suggesting that choices of decision makers are not affected directly by changes in relative power relations, but rather through an intermediate level of strategic culture parameter.

In the Post-Cold War era, US nuclear foreign policies towards India witnessed a major turnaround as a demand for ‘cap, reduce, eliminate’ under the Clinton administration was replaced by the implementation of the historic ‘civil nuclear deal’ in 2008 by Bush, a policy which continued under Obama’s administration. This book addresses the change in US nuclear foreign policy by focusing on three core categories of identity, inequality, and great power narratives. Building upon the theoretical paradigm of critical constructivism, the concept of the ‘state’ is problematised by focusing on identity-related questions arguing that the ‘state’ becomes a constructed entity standing as valid only within relations of identity and difference. Focusing on postcolonial principles, Pate argues that imperialism as an organising principle of identity/difference enables us to understand how difference was maintained in unequal terms through US nuclear foreign policy. This manifested in five great power narratives constructed around peace and justice; India-Pakistan deterrence; democracy; economic progress; and scientific development. Identities of ‘race’, ‘political economy’, and ‘gender’, in terms of ‘radical otherness’ and ‘otherness’ were recurrently utilised through these narratives to maintain a difference enabling the respective administrations to maintain ‘US’ identity as a progressive and developed western nation, intrinsically justifying the US role as an arbiter of the global nuclear order. A useful work for scholars researching identity construction and US foreign and security policies, US-India bilateral nuclear relations, South Asian nuclear politics, critical security, and postcolonial studies.

This book brings together Indian and European perspectives on India’s polity, economy and international strategy. It explores internal, regional and global determinants shaping India’s status, position and goals in the early 21st century. Through an array of methodological and theoretical approaches, it presents debates on democracy, economic development, foreign and security policy, and the course of India–European Union relations. The volume will prove invaluable to scholars and students of international relations, politics, economics, history, and development studies, as well as policy makers and economists.