ABSTRACT
The specter of nuclear weapons hovers ominously over the tense Indo-Pakistani relations. India and Pakistan have been developing nuclear weapon capabilities since at least the early 1970s. The “logic of nonproliferation” and the “logic of nuclear deterrence” cannot comfortably co-exist. The South Asian nuclear arms competition has developed as a two-phase historical process. In the first phase, the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapon programs began as links in a global proliferation chain extending back to the Second World War. The Indian and Pakistani decisions to pursue nuclear weapon capabilities stimulated the second phase of the South Asian nuclear weaponization process. Steady improvements in nuclear weapon and delivery capabilities have marked the second phase in South Asian nuclear weapon development. The logic of nuclear deterrence stresses that nuclear weapons promote deterrent, not offensive, strategies and thus decrease the chances of war.
