ABSTRACT
India lives in a tough neighbourhood. With both its neighbours, Pakistan and China, India shares contested borders and territorial disputes. These countries are also nuclear-armed and hence pose unique challenges to its security. Both of them also have different nuclear doctrines and build up their capabilities to meet their vision of credible deterrence. The two also significantly share a robust nuclear and missile proliferation relationship between themselves and their collusion to complicate India’s security, which both perceive as a strategic adversary. This chapter undertakes an overview of three nuclear challenges to Indian security—from Pakistan’s nuclear strategy, from China’s nuclear modernisation and from the re-emergence of nuclear warfighting concepts—and offers suggestions on optimal Indian responses to each of them.
