ABSTRACT
MosT, BUT NOT ALL, of the world's major powers are nuclear weapons states. Most, but not all, of the world's nuclear weaporis states are major powers. Four of the G-8 states are nuclear weapons states, as are all five of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. India is not a member of the G-8 or the Security Council. It has joined the ranks of the nuclear powers, but whether this will speed up its movement to great-power status remains to be seen. This chapter examines India's evolution from a nuclear-abstaining state to a threshold state, and in 1998 to a self-deciared nuclear weapons state that has' tested nuclear weapons bu t is not yet a nuclear weapons power in the broadest sense of the term.
