INDIAS NUCLEAR BOMB

AND NATIONAL SECURITY

BALA 11M
ANDY 11M
VIVEK MURALIDHARAN
11M205
P.SRIHARSHA 11M211

CONTENTS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NATIONAL
INTERESTS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND INDIAS
SECURITY
BEYOND SECURITY : NUCLEAR
WEAPONS AND NATIONAL PRESTIGE
CONCLUSION

NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND NATIONAL INTERESTS

Power, Interests and Indias Nuclear Policy

Security-related motives are considered a crucial determinant of Indias
nuclearization.
The dynamics of Indias nuclearization shows that nuclear weapons
fundamentally differ from conventional weaponry as elements of power.
Generally, it is assumed that a quantitative increase of conventional military
power usually equates to a proportional increase in a states political power.
In the case of nuclear weapons, this proportional relationship does not exist.
As elements of power, nuclear weapons engender a further paradox: owing to
their destructiveness, they are frequently described as unusable weapons.
Deterrence is commonly defined as the threat of military retaliation to prevent
another country from using military force in pursuit of its foreign policy.
Deterrence has three key aims.
First, it intends to prevent the emergence of crises.
A second goal is to prevent existing crises from escalating into war. In the case
of an existing territorial dispute, such as the Kashmir dispute between India
and Pakistan, deterrence is applied to the latter.
A third aim is to prevent the adversary from forcing maximum demands on the
state in the course of bilateral bargaining

Elite Perception and Indias Nuclear

Course

Elite Perception and Indias Nuclear

Course

Throughout the history of Indias nuclear programme, the advisory

role of strategic experts to the Prime Minister was based mainly on a
personal relationship.
In 1998, the BJP government started a process of institutionalizing the
governments access to strategic expertise by creating the National
Advisory Board, of which several eminent personages of the strategic
elite became members.
Among the opinion leaders, three main groups are distinguishable: the
military-strategists, the politico-strategists, and the scientificstrategists.
Since Nehruvian times, Indias military remained largely excluded from
strategic decision making. The reason for this traditional exclusion was
the civilian leaderships suspicion of political ambitions within the
military leadership.
The politico-strategist group within Indias strategic elite is quite
heterogeneous, comprising journalists, political scientists, political
activists, independent intellectuals, members of NGOs and various
associations. As would be expected of such diversity, the opinions
expressed by this group cover the entire political spectrum, ranging

Structure and process of Indias

Nuclear Policy Making

Structure and process of Indias

Nuclear Policy Making Contd.

In January 2003, the government finally decided to establish a

Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) with the highest competency
for nuclear weapons.
The NCA is structured into the Political Council, chaired by the
Prime Minister, and the Executive Council, chaired by the National
Security Adviser to the Prime Minister.
Next to the Nuclear Command Authority, the post of a
Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Forces Command was
established to create a responsible decision maker for nuclear
deployment and warfare