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| India-Pakistan |
| Security rethink |
| 2015-08-31 |
| [DAWN] THE numbers are staggering. According to a new report by two international think tanks, Pakistain is estimated to possess 120 nuclear warheads. Within the next decade, the report claims, it could have up to 350 nuclear weapons, making Pakistain's the third-largest nuclear stockpile in the world. Not bad for a country that has a 4000 MW energy shortfall. During a trip to Joint Staff Headquarters last week, a Senate defence committee heard why arms stockpiling continues at this pace. India is Pakistain's only external threat, the committee was told, and it continues to amass Pakistain-specific weapons worth billions. This apparently meant that Pakistain had few options but to stock up too. But there are other ways to view this conundrum. Writing in this paper last week, Toby Dalton and Michael Krepon, the authors of the above-mentioned report A Normal Nuclear Pakistain, argued that Pakistain currently has sufficient nuclear stockpiles to deter India from engaging with it in a conventional war or deploying nuclear weapons. They called for Pakistain's military leadership to acknowledge its success in achieving 'strategic' deterrence -- enough to prevent war, nuclear or otherwise -- rather than pursue 'full spectrum' deterrence, which would entail the endless acquisition of more nuclear weapons. |
| Posted by:Fred |