The New Nuclear Threat: U.S. Post-Proliferation Policy in South Asia

Abstract

With the end of the Cold War and the reduced danger of strategic nuclear conflict, U.S. policy makers are now paying greater attention to a new type of nuclear threat nuclear proliferation. The appearance of new nuclear weapons states promises to usher in a more dangerous era of proliferation requiring a new type of policy. In contrast to arguments that "more may be better," this essay maintains that the introduction of nuclear weapons into certain regions may be destabilizing, and that this is especially so in the case of South Asia. India and Pakistan are now both de facto nuclear powers. The essay looks at a number of U.S. policy responses to this situation, ranging from diplomacy, to the transfer of stabilizing technology, to further U.S. efforts at strategic arms control.