Vol. 5 No. 2 (2022): Pakistan Journal of International Affairs
Articles

THE NUCLEAR EVOLUTION OF PAKISTAN & INDIA: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Published 2022-05-29

Abstract

The article dives deep into the history of nuclear evolution of South Asian giants Pakistan and India. Since Pakistan's drive for nuclear energy began in 1972, efforts have been made to examine the country's nuclear weapons possibilities. It wasn't until after India conducted its nuclear test in May 1974 that American officials began to worry that Pakistan was establishing a nuclear weapons capability. First came India's nuclear test, which prepared the path for Pakistan's nuclearization in South Asia. During the Gerald Ford administration from 1974 to 1977, the United States pursued a policy of non-proliferation with Pakistan. The government pushed France and Pakistan to abandon their plutonium reprocessing arrangement in an effort to limit Pakistan's latent proliferation potential. Even though it failed to stop Pakistan from developing nuclear weapons, the administration sought to construct a trade-off with Pakistan by pressuring it to chose military aid over nuclear weapons development. Due to its belief that the US non-proliferation policies in South Asia were biased towards India, Pakistan decided to use a nuclear weapon. For more than half a century, conflicts and crises have defined the path of the India-Pakistan conflict. They represent a danger to regional stability in terms of peace and security because of the escalating arms race between them. For decades, the two countries have engaged in a long-running disagreement over Kashmir, which is often regarded as the nuclear war hotspot. It has been a long time since the division that the two countries have had a lengthy history of weapons. As a typical illustration of a security problem, the rivalry for security is a spiralling actionreaction connection in which one state's actions induce insecurity in another. A race to the top in military spending might result as a result of this security issue. As a result of New Delhi's military buildup, it has created a security challenge for its neighbours, particularly Pakistan, in recent years. A threat to regional stability in South Asia is posed by the weapons race between India and Pakistan.