Author: Praful Bidwai
Achin Vanik/
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 352
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195651782
Description
This topical book, while offering answers to questions such as what impelled the two South Asian neighbors to nuclearize, advances a thoroughgoing and incisive critique of reliance on nuclear weapons for security.
In May 1998, India did what many thought unthinkable: it conducted nuclear tests and joined the discriminatory global nuclear order it had long criticized - on the side of the discriminators, Pakistan followed.
What impelled the two South Asian neighbors to nuclearize, especially just when a global momentum for nuclear disarmament, not just arms control, was emerging for the first time in the Nuclear Age? What is the likely impact of this fateful decision on nuclear disarmament prospects? On regional security? On the subcontinent's societies? On their 500 million poor?
In exploring the domestic, regional and international factors behind South Asia's nuclearization, Bidwai and Vanaik offer an analysis that is at once theoretical and empirical, ethical and political, as well as rooted in the specific emergence of a belligerent, exclusivist, communal nationalism in both India and Pakistan.
While evaluating the impact of nuclearization on South Asia and world security, the authors span a range of issues: the ethics of war, the irrationality of nuclear deterrence, changing power equations since 1945, and alternatives to a nuclear arms race.
South Asia on a Short Fuse argues that nuclearization has degraded not only India and Pakistan's security and global stature but will do little to deter conventional conflicts. In fact, it is liable to draw them, and China, into a potentially ruinous arms race. Therefore, the new challenges to the global nuclear order posed by South Asian developments calls for imaginative responses from the peace movement. This work passionately pleads for radical, yet feasible, disarmament measures.
The authors are among South Asia's best regarded disarmament analysts and activists. They bring a distinctively South-centered vision into a typically North-dominated field. This landmark book is written for both general and specialist audiences.
THE AUTHORS:
Praful Bidwai is a columnist for over twenty publications and until recently was Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), New Delhi.
Achin Vanaik, a journalist and writer, has held senior positions at NMML and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Bidwai and Vanaik are founder members of MIND (Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament) and Fellows of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam. This is their second major collaborative effort.
Contents
List of Abbreviations
CHAPTER ONE
THE TOP STORY OF THE CENTURY
Nuclearism : Sanctification of Popularization ?
Hollywood and the Bomb
What this Book is About
The General Perspective
CHAPTER TWO
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT-I
BLOC RIVALRY AND THE HIGH NOON OF NUCLEARISM
The General Politics of the Cold War Era
Nuclearism during the Cold War
'Massive Retaliation' to 'Flexible Response'
Arms Race Management to the Second Cold War
CHAPTER THREE
THE GLOBAL CONTEXT - II
HESITANT BUT NEW : DISARMAMENT MOMENTU,
AFTER THE COLD WAR
Six Renunciations
Negative and Positive Consequences
Nato Enlargement and 'Stockpile Stewardship'
Indefinite Extension of the NPT
A Spate of New Initiatives and the World Court Verdict
CHAPTER FOUR
THE ROAD TO POKHARAN-II AND CHAGAI
The Fateful Days of May 1998
Washington Misjudges Signals from Indian
Vajpayee's Rationalization
BOX 1 'Safe' Tests and Popular Doubts : Official Claims and People's Experience don't Match
India, Pakistan under Flak
SPECIAL SECTION
HISTORIC DEGENERATION : EVOLUTION OF INDIA'S NUCLEAR POLICY
ANNEXE 1 Willie Rivalry : What is the Truth about the Yields of Indian and Pakistani Tests ?
CHAPTER FIVE
False Explanations
A Sino-Pakistan 'Axis'?
Hypocrisy and the Bomb
Nuclear Nationalism : the Sangh Factor
Hardliners' Muscle-Flexing
Nuclearization's Horrendous Cost
The Domestic Fallout
Pakistan in Imitation Mode
Islamabad's Search for Parity
Inviting Ruin
Setback to Democratization
CHAPTER SIX
INDEFENSIBLE ARMS : THE ETHICS OF WAR AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Uniquely Immoral
Just and Unjust Wars
Box 2Toys for the Boys : How Nuclearism Works against Women
Indiscriminate Destruction
Why Nuclear Deterrence is 'Abhorrent'
The Pax Christi Bishops' Argument
The Gandhi-Nehru Legacy and Its Degradation
Militarist Nationalism in India
The Anomalies of Ambiguity
Gandhi's Second Assassination'
A Distinctive Insensitivity
Celebrating Mass Destruction
CHAPTER SEVEN
AN UNAFFORDABLE ARSENAL : THE LIKELY COSTS OF A 'CREDIBLE MINIMUM DETERRENT'
Blowing up $5500 billion
How much will Indian Nuclear Weapons Cost : Conservative Estimates Missed Opportunities
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE DETERRENCE DELUSION : WHY NUCLEAR WEAPONS DO NOT GENERATE SECURITY
The Problem of Realism
The Social-Neutrality Myth
The Fallacies of Nuclear Deterrence
Instability of Nuclear Deterrence
How Reliable : Has Deterrence Really Worked ?
The Myth of 'Nuclear Blackmail'
The India-Pakistan Face-Off
BOX 3 Ramshackle Deterrence ? :
There is Little that is Reliable in the Disaster-Prone Subcontinent
ANNEEXE 2 Bombing Bombay : More Devastating than Hiroshima ?
CHAPTER NINE
FROM ABSTINENCE, TO AMBIGUITY, TO THE NUCLEAR BLASTS
Pakistan : Teased into Testing
'We'll Eat Grass…'
Indian : Scientists' Pernicious Role
Pakistan : Reactive Consistency
Pokharan-I : From Abstinence to Ambiguity
'Recessed Deterrence' or Silent Arms Race ?
The Turning Point of 1988
The US-Indian-Pakistan Triangle
The 'Chinese Threat' : Myth or Reality ?
CHAPTER TEN
CHALLENGES TO THE GLOBAL NUCLEAR ORDER : WHOSE CRISIS ? WHOSE DILEMMA ?
The Skewed Global Security Equations
Dangers from Altered Security Equations
A Multi-Class Nuclear Club
BOX 4 Where Are They?: World wide Nuclear Deployments
A Hardening US Posture
The New Nukes' Dilemmas
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE STRUGGLE FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION
Them and Us
lessons from Our Past
BOX 5: Marxists and Nuclear Weapons :
Ambiguity and the 'Red Bomb'
The Fallacy of 'Nuclear Imperialism'
Public Policy and Popular Consciousness
BOX 6: No Peace in the 'Land of the Buddha'?:
Disarmament Movements in South Asia
What is to be Done ?
Three Routes
Denuclearization of South Asia
The Importance of NWFZs
CTBT and Beyond
A No First Use Pledge
De-Alerting Nuclear Weapons
Conclusion
APPENDICES
1. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
The Importance of a Test Ban
The Final Treaty : Strengths and Weakness
2. Self-Serving Sanctimoniousness : Indian Criticism of the CTBT
3. Nuclear Weapon Treaties
4. International Resolutions : India, Pakistan at the Receiving End
The Neighbourhood Reacts
The G-8 Position
Asean Region Forum
The NAM Resolution
Security council Resolution 1172
Select Bibliography
Index