Nuclear Crisis Stability in South Asia

Challenges to Nuclear Stability in South Asia

Ten Years of Instability in a Nuclear South Asia

nuclear tests of May 1998 put to rest years of speculation as to whether the two countries, long suspected of developing covert weapons capabilities, would openly exercise their so-called nuclear option. The dust had hardly settled from the tests, however, when a arestorm of debate erupted over nuclear weapons’ regional security implications. Some observers argued that nuclearization would stab...

Limited War and Nuclear Escalation in South Asia

Lieutenant General V.R. Raghavan was India’s Director General of Military Operations from 1992 to 1994. He is currently a Director at the Dehli Policy Group. Raghavan is the author of a number of books and articles, including India’s Search for Strategic Balance (Dehli Policy Group, 1996). This paper was written while the author was a visiting fellow at the Center for International Security and...

Reducing Nuclear Dangers in South Asia: a Pakistani Perspective

A former career diplomat of Pakistan, Abdul Sattar served as Ambassador to India (1978-82 and 1990-92) and the Soviet Union (1988-90). He was also Pakistan's Foreign Minister in the caretaker government in 1993. In 1993-94, he was a Distinguished Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., which supported his research for this article. The views expressed in the article ...

Geologic constraints on clandestine nuclear testing in South Asia.

Cavity decoupling in salt is the most plausible means by which a nation could conduct clandestine testing of militarily significant nuclear weapons. The conditions under which solution-mined salt can be used for this purpose are quite restrictive. The salt must be thick and reasonably pure. Containment of explosions sets a shallow limit on depth, and cavity stability sets a deep limit. These co...