From existential to minimum deterrence: Explaining india’s decision to test

Nonproliferation Review

Volumn 6, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 12-24

  Kampani, Gaurav ^a  

^a MONTEREY INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85010501150     PISSN: 10736700     EISSN: 17461766     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/10736709808436732     Document Type: Article

References (111)

1. “India Capable of Making Neutron Bomb: Santhanam,” Indian Express, September 10,1998 (http://www.indian-express.com).
2. K. Subrahmanyam, “Nuclear Force Design and Minimum Deterrence Strategy for India,” in Bharat Kamad, ed., Future Imperilled: India’s Security in the 1990s and Beyond (New Delhi: Viking, 1994), p. 188.
3. Stephen P. Rosen, “India and Its Army After Independence,” in Societies and Military Power: India and Its Armies (London; Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996), pp. 251-252.
4. Manoj Joshi, “Nukewatch: Indo-US Talks,” India Today, August 3, 1998 (http//www.india- today.com).
5. Prakash Nanda, “India Evolves Nuclear Doc trine,” Times of India, August 5, 1998 (http://www.timesofmdia.com).
6. Raj Chengappa, “Worrying Over Broken Arrows,” India Today, July 13, 1998 (http://a href="http://www.india-today.com">www.india-today.com).
7. “Nuclear command to rest with political leadership: Fernandes,” Rediff on the Net, August 10, 1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
8. Praful Bidwai, “Faustian Bargain,” Times of India, August 18, 1998 (http://www.timesofmdia.com).
9. Raj Chengappa, “The Bombmakers,” India Today, June 22, 1998 (http://www.india- today.com).
10. Jasjit Singh, “Prospects for Nuclear Proliferation,” in S. Sur, ed., Nuclear Deterrence: Problems and Perspectives in the 1990s (New York: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, 1993), p. 66.
11. George Perkovich, “A Nuclear Third Way in South Asia,” Foreign Policy, Number 91 (Sum-mer 1993), pp. 85-104.
12. Avner Cohen and Benjamin Frankel, “Opaque Nuclear Proliferation,” in Benjamin Frankel, ed., Opaque Nuclear Proliferation: Methodological and Policy Implications (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1991), pp. 14-18.
13. Mark Hibbs, “India Made ‘About 25 Bomb Cores’ Since First Test In 1974,” Nucleonics Week, June 17, 1998, p. 15.
14. “India: Indian Scientist on Cost of Nuclear Weapons”; in FBIS-NES-98-140 (20 May, 1998).
15. David Albright, “The Shots Heard ‘Round The World,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 1998), p. 24.
16. Mark Hibbs, “India Was Ready In 1996 To Test A-Bombs On A ‘Few Days’ Notice,” Nucleonics Week, May 14,1998, pp. 10-12.
17. Albright, “The Shots Heard ‘Round The World,” p. 23.
18. Chengappa, “The Bombmakers.”
19. W.P.S. Sidhu, “India’s Nuclear Tests: Technical and Military Imperatives,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, April 1996, pp. 172-173.
20. R. Venkataraman, recently confirmed that India had planned to conduct nuclear tests in 1983.
21. See, “R.Venkataraman Praises Vajpayee for N-Tests,” Rediff on the Net, May 26, 1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
22. Chengappa, “The Bombmakers.”
23. K. Subrahmanyam, “Arms Race Myth: Fallout of Over-Active Minds,” Times of India, May 30, 1998 (http://www.timesofindia.com).
24. Chengappa, “The Bombmakers.”
25. “Joint Statement by Department of Atomic Energy and Defence Research and Development Organization,” May 17,1998, Embassy of India website (http://www.indianembassy.org).
26. Rosen, “India and Its Army After Independence,” pp. 251-252.
27. V.S. Arunachalam, personal e-mail to author, April 1998.
28. Dinesh Kumar, “N-weaponisation is now complete: Kalam,” Times of India, May 18, 1998 (http://www.timesofmdia.com).
29. Brahma Chellaney, “An Indian Critique of U.S. Export Controls,” Orbis 38 (Summer 1994), p. 446.
30. India had plans to conduct nuclear tests in the winter of 1995. See, Chengappa, “The Bombmakers”.
31. Tim Weiner, “India Suspected of Preparing of A-Bomb Test,” The New York Times, December 15, 1995, p. A6.
32. Pravin Sawhney, “Standing Alone: India’s Nuclear Imperative,” Jane’s International De-fense Review (November 1996), p. 28.
33. “Weaponisation Now Complete, Say Scientists,” The Hindu, May 18, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com).
34. For technical details on how DRDO proposed to simulate flight-tests for nuclear warheads over land to ensure that their subsystems functioned in accordance with design parameters, see Sawhney, “Standing Alone.” (Interview with former Prime Minister, Inder Kumar Gujral,) ”We have it, they have it, that’s all,” The Times of India, May 16, 1998 (http://www.timesoflndia.com).
35. “No security threat when I stepped down: Gujral,” Rediff on the Net, May 30,1998 (http://www.rediff.com">www.rediff.com).
36. “Deve Gowda Blasts Vajpayee for dumping ‘consensus’,” Rediff on the Net, May 30,1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
37. “Indian’s Letter to Clinton on Nuclear Testing,” The New York Times, May 13, 1998 (http://www.nytimes.com).
38. Ziba Moshaver, “The Politics ofNuclear Weapons In India,” in Nuclear Weapons Prolifera-tion in the Subcontinent (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991), pp. 29-43.
39. Brahma Chellaney, “Our Babbling Power, China’s Biting Power,” The Pioneer, November 5, 1997, p. 8.
40. K. Subrahmanyam, “Dealing With China: Coming Upfront on the N-Option,” Times of India, October 23, 1996, p. 14.
41. Shekhar Gupta and Sudeep Chakravarti, “Sino- Indian Relations: Vital Breakthrough,” India Today, September 30, 1993, pp. 22-26.
42. “China: Jiang Zemin Urges South Asia Stability,” Xinhua, December 4, 1996.
43. Sumit Ganguly, “Strategies and Options for Resolving the Crisis,” in The Crisis in Kashmir (Washington, D.C.: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1997), pp. 142-143.
44. David Albright, “India and Pakistan’s Nuclear Arms Race: Out of the Closet But Not in the Street,” Arms Control Today 23 (June 1993), pp. 15-16.
45. Jane Morse, “China and Non-Proliferation: Interview With Senior US Official,” Disarmament Diplomacy (January 1998), pp. 30-31.
46. David Albright and Corey Gay, “Taiwan: Nuclear Nightmare Averted,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January/February 1998), pp. 54-60.
47. Michael J. Siler, “U.S. Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy in the Northeast Asian Region During the Cold War: The South Korean Case,” paper delivered to the Western Political Science Association Meeting, Los Angeles, California, Spring 1998.
48. David Albright, “South Africa and the Affordable Bomb,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 1994 (http://www.bullatomsci.org).
49. Robert Carlin, “North Korea,” in Mitchell Reiss and Robert S. Litwak, eds., Nuclear Proliferation after the Cold War (Washington, D.C.: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994), pp. 129144.
50. Leonard S. Spector, “Pakistan,” in The Undeclared Bomb (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1988), pp. 120-130.
51. Albright, “India and Pakistan’s Nuclear Arms Race,” p. 16.
52. Abha Dixit, “Missile Race in South Asia: Linear Progression Required to Cap Race?” Strategic Analysis 21 (September 1997) (http://www.idsa-india.org).
53. S. Chandrashekar, “An Assessment of Pakistan’s Missile Capability,” Missile Monitor (Spring 1993), pp. 4-11.
54. John Mintz, “Signs of Chinese Arms Sales Dismissed, Ex-Official,” Washington Post, May 12, 1998, p. A20.
55. Dixit, “Missile Race in South Asia.”
56. Joseph Bermudez, “A Silent Partner,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, May 20, 1998, pp. 16-17.
57. J.N. Dixit, “India’s China Policy in Disarray,” The Hindu, May 7, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com).
58. Achin Vanaik, “Crossing the Rubicon,” Economic and Political Weekly, June 13, 1998, p. 1435.
59. T.V.R. Shenoy, “The BJP was ready for nuclear tests as far back as May 1996,” Rediff on the Net (http://www.rediff.com), May 14 1998.
60. George Iype, “The Day After,” Rediff on the Net, September 5,1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
61. Brahma Chellaney, “Indo-US Talks: CTBT as Camouflage,” The Pioneer, September 30,1998, P-853.
62. Amit Baruah, “Indo-Pak talks on the basis of agreed agenda,” The Hindu (http://www.hinduonline.com), 15 October 1998.
63. Arvind Das, “National Integration in a Fragmented Society,” in India Invented: A Nation In The Making (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 1994), pp. 135-143.
64. Das, “India Invented, Disinvented, and Re-Invented,” India Invented, pp. 1-4.
65. Atul Kohli, “Centralization and Powerlessness: India’s Democracy in Comparative Perspective,” in Joel S. Midgal, Atul Kohli, and Vivienne Shue, eds., State, Power and Social Forces (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 89-106.
66. Atul Kohli, “Introduction,” in Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Govemability (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 3-22.
67. Sunil Khilnanai, “Temples of the Future,” in The Idea of India (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997), pp. 61-106.
68. Das, “Religion, Culture, and Ethnicity,” India Invented, pp. 73-82.
69. Harish Khare, “Resurrecting the Macho State,”
70. The Hindu, May 20, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com).
71. Suvir Kaul, “Pokhran and the Phobia of Partition,” Times of India, August 28, 1998 (http://www.timesofmdia.com).
72. Raj Chengappa and Manoj Joshi, “Hawkish India,” India Today, June 1, 1998 (http://www.india-today.com).
73. Atul Kohli, “Can the Periphery Control the Center? Indian Politics at Crossroads,” The Washington Quarterly 19 (Autumn 1996), pp. 115-127.
74. “Will the BJP Cross the 20 percent mark?” India Today, December 15, 1997 (http://www.india-today. com).
75. Poll ’98 Results: How They Voted, India Today, March 16, 1998 (http://www.mdia-today.com).
76. Swapan Dasgupta and Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, “Crown of Thoms,” India Today, March 16,1998 (http://www.india-today.com).
77. Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, “Can the BJP change its colour?” India Today, December 15, 1997 (http://www.india-today.com)
78. Amulya Ganguly, “From Babri to the Bomb,” The Hindustan Times, May 18, 1998 (http://www.hindustantimes.com).
79. “Shakti” or “divine strength” was the code name given to the nuclear tests conducted by In-dia on May 11, 1998.
80. See, “It was ‘Operation Shakti’ on Budh Pumima,” Rediff on the Net, May 16, 1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
81. “Singhal reiterates resolve to erect temple at Pokhran,” Rediff on the Net, June 8,1998 (http://www.rediffcom).
82. “BJP will make India a superpower: Advani,” The Hindu, July 2, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com).
83. Amberish K. Diwanji, “BJP Looks Up, Finally,” Rediff on the Net, August 24, 1998 (http://www.rediff.com).
84. Kohli, “Can the Periphery Control the Center? Indian Politics at the Crossroads,” pp. 116-118.
85. “Sangma’s Report Foresees Snap Poll,” Rediff on the Net, May 16, 1998 (http://www.rediff.com/).
86. “BJP ready for mid-term polls: Venkaiah Naidu,” The Hindu, August 18, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com/).
87. Ashish Nandy, “The Political Culture of the Indian State,” Daedalus 18 (Fall 1989), pp. 9-11.
88. Scott Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons,” International Security 21 (Winter 1996/97), pp. 65-69.
89. Uday Bhaskar, “Post-Cold War Security,” Strategic Analysis 21 (November 1997) (http://www.idsa-india.org/).
90. K. Subrahmanyam, “Articulating Our Nuclear Policy,” The Economic Times, June 15, 1994, p. 10.
91. C. Raja Mohan, “India’s Nuclear Options,” The Hindu, December 19, 1995, p. 12.
92. Raj Chengappa, “Testing Times,” India Today, December 31, 1995, pp. 49-50.
93. Muchkund Dubey, “Nuclear Options: The Choice Cannot Wait,” Frontline, January 26, 1996, pp. 4-11.
94. Virginia Foran, “The Case for Indo-US High- Technology Cooperation,” Survival 40 (Summer 1998), pp. 71-95.
95. Chintamani Mahapatra, “American Approach to Sino-Pakistan Nuclear and Missile Cooperation,” Strategic Analysis 21 (January 1998), pp. 1407-1417.
96. Selig Harrison, “The United States and South Asia: Trapped by the Past,” Current History 96 (December 1997), pp. 401-406.
97. C. Raja Mohan, “The Politics of Nuclear Abolition,” The Hindu, January 23,1997, p. 10.
98. William Walker, “India’s Nuclear Labyrinth,” The Nonproliferation Review 4 (Fall 1996), pp. 68-70.
99. C. Raja Mohan, “Finessing a Nuclear Deal,” The Hindu, July 7, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com/).
100. C. Raja Mohan, “Indo-US Nuclear Reconciliation,” The Hindu, September 12, 1998 (http://www.hinduonline.com/).
101. Itty Abraham, “Science and Power in the PostColonial State,” Alternatives 21 (1996) pp. 321323.
102. G.S. Bhargava, “Nuclear Power in India: The Costs of Independence,” Energy Policy, August 1992, pp. 735-743.
103. Praful Bidwai, “Nuclear Meltdown,” Times of India, February 28, 1997 (http://www. timesofindia.com).
104. For details, see Moshaver, “India’s Nuclear Development,” pp. 78-95.
105. Vijay Menon, “Fast Breeder Reactors: Moving at a Snail’s Pace,” India Today, November 30,1994, pp. 66-67.
106. N.D. Nalapat, “India’s Nuclear Power Sector Stalled Since 1984,” Times of India, January 15, 1996, p. 11.
107. “No Money for India’s Nuclear Power Program,” Rediff on the Net, April 26, 1997 (http://www.rediff.com).
108. Eric Arnett, “The Case of India,” SIPRI Yearbook 1994 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 343.
109. Eric Arnett, “Big science, small results,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 1998), pp. 46-47.
110. “DAE revises target to generate 20.000MW atomic power by 2020,” Rediff on the Net, June 2, 1998 (httpV/wwwjediffcom/).
111. Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik, “A Very Political Bomb,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 1998), p. 52.