Lausanne witnessed a historic moment on April 2, when Iran and the P5 + 1 (United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany) announced the interim agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. The agreement is currently in progress and the final deal is scheduled to be signed on June 30 (fingers crossed). If the agreement… Continue reading P5 Plus 1 – Iran Nuclear Deal: What It Means for India
President Obama’s visit to India marks a crucial event, with hope of instilling a sense of dynamism in India-US relations. Interestingly, Barack Obama would be the first serving American President to ever attend India’s Republic Day celebrations and also the first to visit India twice. Beyond the high symbolism that dominates the visit, there are… Continue reading Obama’s India Visit: Opportunities & Challenges
“While Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent is for security, India’s is for status.” As soon as I read these words, I wondered if the terms ‘security’ and ‘status’ are mutually exclusive when understanding South Asia’s nuclear deterrent. Also, if ‘security’ is the right term to use for the Indian context. Scholars, including my co-blogger Amina Afzal at… Continue reading India’s Nuclear Deterrent: A desire for Immunity
Nuclear weapons programmes remain a crucial strategic element when looking at India-Pakistan relations and its idiosyncrasies. Given this background, India tends to possess some fears regarding Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. It is natural to assume that Pakistan may have certain fears regarding India’s programme. The following section presents an Indian viewpoint and points out some… Continue reading Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Programme: India’s Anxieties
The ongoing episode of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC),continuous firings and the unfortunate cases of civilian deaths on both sides, points to the challenge South Asia is facing today. It is important to highlight the issues that make this event relatively different from the previous incidents along the LoC or the… Continue reading India’s Changing Pakistan Policy
Emerging out of a recent workshop on Deterrence Stability in South Asia organised by the Stimson Center and Carnegie, I set about identifying some prospective confidence building measures in the field of nuclear cooperation between New Delhi and Islamabad. Owing to secrecy of their nuclear programmes and understandably so, there are extremely limited nuclear-related areas… Continue reading Nuclear Waste Management: Exploring Future Areas of India-Pakistan Cooperation
[With Sitakanta Mishra] Mark Fitzpatrick’s argument for “nuclear rehabilitation of Pakistan” in his bookOvercoming Pakistan’s Nuclear Dangers reminds one of a scene from a famous Bollywood movie Sholey. Jai, one of the male protagonists goes to meet the female protagonist’s (Basanti) aunt (Mausi) to ask her consent for the marriage of Basantiand his friend… Continue reading ‘Overlooking’ Pakistan’s Nuclear Dangers
India and Pakistan, since their partition have remained embroiled in a seemingly unending acrimonious relationship. This remains so, despite periodic efforts undertaken at the governmental and the non-governmental levels. The overt introduction of nuclear weapons in 1998 added a new dimension to the Indo-Pakistan relations, which continues to evolve till date. Glancing at the… Continue reading India-Pakistan: Talking in Different Tongues
A lot has changed since Pakistan went nuclear in 1998. Pakistan has successfully tested and deployed longer range nuclear-capable missiles while continuing to expand its fissile material stockpile and of late has ventured towards flight-testing its short range missile Nasr/Hatf-IX which it claims carries a nuclear warhead. Nevertheless, one person has remained a constant fixture throughout… Continue reading Passing the nuclear baton in Pakistan
With the government’s long awaited approval of the Mountain Strike Corps, an interesting debate within the strategic community has sprung up showcasing the Mahan-Mackinder divide in the context of India’s China Policy. The debate was initiated by Rear Admiral Raja Menon’s opinion piece in The Hindu which argued that India’s weakness on the LAC can… Continue reading Mackinder versus Mahan: How will the dice roll?
Aditi Malhotra 