NUCLEAR
Deterrence and Diplomacy

Deterrence has been part of human conflict and its prevention for centuries. But nuclear weapons gave it a unique, if apocalyptic, dimension of deterrence through mutually assured destruction, aptly called MAD. The Cold War bestowed on it the quality of grand strategy linking as it did, deterrence with arms control and strategic stability. Thus, while deterrence was pursued through threat of causing grievous hurt vying with annihila­tion, diplomacy sought to construct a frame­work where the powerful sought to retain their advantage while pressing for reducing that of the adversary or completely denying it to others. And this came to be termed non-proliferation, keeping its vertical dimension outside any questioning. 

Wherever and whenever an adversary required the ability to counter superior capa­bilities, arms control acquired the shape of strategic stability through diplomatic negotia­tions. But all this was easier during the bipolar confrontation of the Cold War, and with its end, they lost their original context. To a large extent, the arms control and non-proliferation regime so painstakingly crafted and negotiat­ed during the past five-odd decades started to be obsolescent in the emerging multilateral strategic environment. And, hence, the drift toward unilateralism, whether formally declared or not. 

Meanwhile, nuclear deterrence has been undergoing changes due to the increasing vulnerability of states and society in a globalis­ing and increasingly interdependent world. Recognising the fundamentally political nature of the role of nuclear weapons, China and India evolved an approach to nuclear deterrence quite different from that adopted by others. And they seem to have succeeded equally well so far, with unquestionably lower costs and risks. 

Written by two leading experts in the field, this book explores the changes taking place in nuclear deterrence and diplomacy at the beginning of the 21st century, especially as they relate to India and its security.

Contents
 

About the Authors

Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, AVSM, VrC, VM, IAF (Retd), is Director of the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi. He headed India's prestigious think-tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, for fourteen years (1987-2001). He has published extensively on strategic and security issues including Air Power in Modern Warfare (1985); Non-provocative Defence (1989); Nuclear India (1998); Kargil 1999:Pakistan's Fourth War for Kashmir (1999); India's Defence Spending (2001); Air Power and Joint Operations (2003); and Iraq War (2004). He is a Visiting Lecturer at defence and war col­leges in India and abroad and Editorial Adviser (Defence and Strategic Affairs) to the Indian Express Group of newspapers. 

and

Dr. Manpreet Sethi, author of the book enti­tled Argentina's Nuclear Policy, is Senior Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, New Delhi. She received her Ph.D from the Latin American Division of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and served on the research faculty of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi, for a number of years. Her research papers have been pub­lished in national and international academic journals and books.