Karsten Frey - Indias Nuclear Bomb and National Security

This book gives an analytic account of the dynamics of Indias nuclear build-up. In contrast to conventional studies on the issue, the author puts forward a new model, which goes beyond the classic strategic concept of accepting securityrelated motives of arming behaviour. According to this, the structural conditions of Indias regional security environment were permissive to Indias nuclear development but not sufficient to make Indias nuclearization imperative for maintaining its national security. At the core of the argument lies the question about Indias security considerations and their impact on Indias nuclear policy development. The author explores this analytic model by including explanatory variables on the unit-level, where interests are generally related to symbolic, less strategic, values attributed to nuclear weapons. These play a significant role within Indias domestic political party competition and among certain pressure groups. They have also influenced Indias relationship with other countries on non-proliferation matters. This book identifies the role of the strategic elite in determining Indias nuclear course. Furthermore, it argues that one of the pivotal driving forces behind Indias quest for the nuclear bomb is Indias struggle for international recognition and the strong, often obsessive sensitivities of Indias elite regarding perceived acts of discrimination or ignorance by the West towards India.

Karsten Frey is Research Fellow at the Institut Barcelona dEstudis Internacionals, IBEI. His research focus is on issues of global nuclear proliferation.

Routledge Advances in South Asian studies

Edited by Subrata K. Mitra

South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany

South Asia, with its burgeoning, ethnically diverse population, soaring economies, and nuclear weapons, is an increasingly important region in the global context. The series, which builds on this complex, dynamic and volatile area, features innovative and original research on the region as a whole or on the countries. Its scope extends to scholarly works drawing on history, politics, development studies, sociology and economics of individual countries from the region, as well as those that take an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the area as a whole or to a comparison of two or more countries from this region. In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any one orthodoxy, the series draws broadly on the insights germane to area studies, as well as the tool kit of the social sciences in general, emphasizing comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods. The series welcomes submissions from established authors in the field as well as from young authors who have recently completed their doctoral dissertations.

First published 2006
by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.

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2006 Karsten Frey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN 0-203-96868-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-40132-1 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-96868-9 (ebk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-40132-6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-96868-0 (ebk)

To Phea and Tristan

Veritas filia temporis

I am thankful to Subrata K. Mitra for showing me the particularities of strategic thinking among Indias elite, and to Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema for introducing me to the complexity of the conflict between India and Pakistan. Additionally, I am grateful for the comments and suggestions of several colleagues who helped point out empirical weaknesses and ambiguities in the preliminary drafts. In particular, I benefited from conversations with several Indian academics and military officers. For his diligent assistance in collecting and processing data, I am indebted to Eric Decker.

This monograph is the first part of what is intended as a larger project on Non-Security Related Motives of Nuclear Arming Behaviour and their Impact onGlobal Nonproliferation Regime Building. I gratefully acknowledge the generous support given by the team at the Barcelona Institute of International Studies (IBEI), particularly that of Narcs Serra and Jacint Jordana who provided an ideal atmosphere for research and writing. For his administrative support, I would like to thank Carlos Snchez.

Special thanks go to Edward Dunlap who has painstakingly worked to bring the crude English of the original manuscript into publishable style.

Finally, I would like to thank the editors of Routledge, and Dorothea Schaefter, Tom Bates, and Heather Munro who managed editing and book production.

AEC

Atomic Energy Commission (of India)

AEET

Atomic Energy Establishment Trombay

AS

Attitude Scale

BARC

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party

BWC

Biological Weapons Convention

CANDU

Canadian DeuteriumUranium (Reactor)

C3I

Command, Control, Communication, and Intelligence

CBMs

Confidence Building Measures

CCPA

Cabinet Committee for Political Affairs

CD

Conference on Disarmament

CIA

Central Intelligence Agency

CIRUS

CanadianIndian Reactor, US

CSIR

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

CTBT

Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty

CWC

Chemical Weapons Convention

DAE

Department of Atomic Energy

DRDO

Defence Research and Development Organization

FMCT

Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty

GoM

Group of Ministers

H-Bomb

Hydrogen Bomb

HEU

Highly Enriched Uranium

HQ

Head Quarters

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency

IAS

Indian Administrative Service