ABSTRACT
Pakistan initiated its nuclear policies in the 1960s, and did so with India in mind and it has never deviated from that course ever since. This chapter talks about Pakistan's path to the acquisition of nuclear weapons in order to show that its initial objective was solely to counter the threat of a nuclear India. It shows how the programme of developing a bomb evolved, while demonstrating the passive role of the United States that, arguably, facilitated this. The chapter discusses the issue of nuclear terrorism and the possibility of proliferation especially in the light of Pakistan's nuclear programme along with new regional realities especially in light of a shift of the US policy in the South Pacific and South China Sea, the regional activism of China and India, which may contribute to such proliferation and danger, and also Iran's nuclear agreement with the Western powers.
