By Shashank Joshi
India’s unique understanding of nuclear non-proliferation and strategic stability complicates Asia’s nuclear balance.
The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has published a new report, Strategic Stability in the Second Nuclear Age, by Gregory Koblentz, a professor at George Mason University. It’s relatively short, at 41 pages, and covers nearly all the nuclear-armed states with the exception of North Korea and Israel.
About half the report is a useful overview of existing nuclear capabilities and technological trends, and the conclusions are broadly familiar: deterrence relationships are getting more complex, new non-nuclear technologies (missile defense, anti-satellite weapons, conventional counterforce, and cyberwarfare) are potentially disruptive, and “South Asia … is the region most at risk of a breakdown in strategic stability due to an explosive mixture of unresolved territorial disputes, cross-border terrorism, and growing nuclear arsenals.” Where it gets more interesting is in the recommendations it makes for dealing with the nuclear order in Asia.
Koblentz calls on the Obama administration to “discourage India from pursuing missile defense capabilities,” on the basis that “these efforts will provoke qualitative and quantitative improvements in Pakistani and Chinese missiles that will circumvent or overwhelm Indian defenses.” He urges the U.S. to support “official government-to-government talks between India and China on issues related to strategic stability,” arguing that Indian and Chinese policies “overlap considerably” anyway.
Read the full story at The Diplomat