Publisher Fact Sheet The definitive history of India's long flirtation with nuclear capability, culminating in the nuclear tests that surprised the world in May 1998.

Since India began developing its nuclear program it has continually encountered issues with the United States and other nuclearized countries over whether India should be able to establish a nuclear program, and subsequently a nuclear weapons program. Over the past 60 years, the Indio-U.S. relationship has swung from supporting India's nuclear ambitions to employing sanctions over nuclear weapon testing. Since the attacks of September 11, the U.S. has paid closer attention to the South Asian region, balancing their policies between the needed Pakistani support for the Global War on Terror (GWOT) with the desire to maintain India as an economic partner and leverage against Chinese regional influence. This monograph, “The Evolution of India's Nuclear Program: Implications for the United States,” examines the evolution of India's nuclear program as it developed from the 1940s through the 1990s and the current nuclear capabilities that they now possess. In addition, discussing the various U.S. reactions and policies during the time period as they relate to India is important to understand the relationship that currently exists between the two countries. As it approaches its seventh decade, the Indian nuclear program continues to develop improved weapons technologies with the potential to proliferate nuclear material to other countries, how should the U.S. address the various issues that have promulgated over the past 60 years as they relate to the future? In developing this strategy, the U.S. government should examine the past administrations policies towards India since 1947 in order to develop a comprehensive strategy that utilizes all the instruments of national power that will encourage India to become a responsible stakeholder among the nuclearized countries and demonstrate the responsibility that goes along with nuclear technology. In delving into these past policies, the government will be more able to develop an understanding of the Indian psyche as it relates to the way the U.S. has traditionally dealt with its country. As India continues to develop into a regional power, interaction with the U.S. becomes increasingly important, and the U.S. reactions to Indian endeavors in the nuclear field will permeate throughout the discussions between the two countries.

India has come a long way from being a nuclear pariah to a de facto member of the nuclear club. The transition in its nuclear identity has been accompanied by its transformation into a major economic power and underlines a pragmatic turn in its foreign-policy thinking. This book provides a historical narrative of the evolution of India’s nuclear policy since 1947, as the country continues its pursuit for complete integration into the global nuclear order. Situating India’s nuclear behaviour in this context, the book explains how India’s engagement with the atom is unique in international nuclear history and politics. Aided by declassified archival documents and oral history interviews, it focuses on how status, security, domestic politics, and the role of individuals have played a key role in defining and shaping India’s nuclear trajectory, policy choices, and their consequences.

Publisher Fact Sheet The definitive history of India's long flirtation with nuclear capability, culminating in the nuclear tests that surprised the world in May 1998.

Since India began developing its nuclear program it has continually encountered issues with the United States and other nuclearized countries over whether India should be able to establish a nuclear program, and subsequently a nuclear weapons program. Over the past 60 years, the India-U.S. relationship has swung from supporting India's nuclear ambitions to employing sanctions over nuclear weapon testing. Since the attacks of September 11, the U.S. has paid closer attention to the South Asian region, balancing their policies between the needed Pakistani support for the Global War on Terror (GWOT) with the desire to maintain India as an economic partner and leverage against Chinese regional influence. This monograph examines the evolution of India's nuclear program as it developed from the 1940s through the 1990s and the current nuclear capabilities that they now possess. In addition, discussing the various U.S. reactions and policies during the time period as they relate to India is important to understand the relationship that currently exists between the two countries. As it approaches its seventh decade, the Indian nuclear program continues to develop improved weapons technologies with the potential to proliferate nuclear material to other countries, how should the U.S. address the various issues that have promulgated over the past 60 years as they relate to the future? In developing this strategy, the U.S. government should examine the past administrations policies towards India since 1947 in order to develop a comprehensive strategy that utilizes all the instruments of national power that will encourage India to become a responsible stakeholder among the nuclearized countries and demonstrate the responsibility that goes along with nuclear technology. In delving into these past policies, the government will be more able to develop an understanding of the I.

"This book brings together the many pieces of India's nuclear puzzle and the ramifications for South Asia. The author examines the choices facing India from New Delhi's point of view in order to discern which future courses of action appear most appealing to Indian security managers. He details how such choices, if acted upon, would affect U.S. strategic interests, India's neighbors, and the world."--BOOK JACKET.

This book examines the Indian nuclear policy, doctrine, strategy and posture, clarifying the elastic concept of credible minimum deterrence at the center of the country's approach to nuclear security. This concept, Karnad demonstrates, permits the Indian nuclear forces to be beefed up, size and quality-wise, and to acquire strategic reach and clout, even as the qualifier minimum suggests an overarching concern for moderation and economical use of resources, and strengthens India's claims to be a responsible nuclear weapon state. Based on interviews with Indian political leaders, nuclear scientists, and military and civilian nuclear policy planners, it provides unique insights into the workings of India's nuclear decision-making and deterrence system. Moreover, by juxtaposing the Indian nuclear policy and thinking against the theories of nuclear war and strategic deterrence, nuclear escalation, and nuclear coercion, offers a strong theoretical grounding for the Indian approach to nuclear war and peace, nuclear deterrence and escalation, nonproliferation and disarmament, and to limited war in a nuclearized environment. It refutes the alarmist notions about a nuclear flashpoint in South Asia, etc. which derive from stereotyped analysis of India-Pakistan wars, and examines India's likely conflict scenarios involving China and, minorly, Pakistan.