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John Moore discusses India's new
draft of its nuclear weapons policy
In 1999, following its weapons tests the previous year, the Indian National Security Advisory Board formulated a draft doctrine to govern its nuclear weapons posture. A BASIC (British American Security Information Council) paper, on Western nuclear policy, suggests that the nuclear policies of India and Pakistan can best be understood in the context of.....
"... the long-term pattern of US-led policy, which is to oppose proliferation until it happens and then reach an accommodation with the proliferator after the fact. Indian and Pakistani actions have neither resulted in new disarmament initiatives that include them, nor in significant penalties being imposed against them.
These two states sought to acquire nuclear status after the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] was made permanent in 1995, an action which they felt allowed NWS [Nuclear Weapons States] to keep their arsenals indefinitely. India in particular had long declined to accept permanent 'second class status'. Their decisions also came after the CTBT [Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty] imposed upon them the responsibility of signing the Treaty for it to enter into force, resulting in extra pressure on their political processes. They regard the CTBT as discriminatory since the existing NWS are pursuing new methods of testing including computer modelling and simulation, above ground tests, and laser fusion to continue the development of new weapons. These methods are not available to India and Pakistan..."[1]
India's draft nuclear doctrine was explained in a recent piece in the Pugwash Newsletter by a member of the National Security Advisory Board:
"...India's nuclearisation has emerged out of the failure of the international community to institute disarmament half a century after nuclear weapons came into use and more than three decades after the five nuclear weapon states were bound by treaty obligations to do so." [2]
The draft doctrine reaffirms India's no-first-use policy and promises that India will work for an international treaty banning the first use of nuclear weapons:
"There is no doubt that India's nuclear doctrine poses a serious challenge to the prevailing doctrine of offensive orientation and first strike strategic doctrines of the US/NATO and Russia. China has been demanding a treaty on no-first-use among the weapon states. The Chinese and Indian doctrines now indicate a counter view to the traditional aggressive doctrines of other nuclear weapons states who visualise use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear threats ... India exercised restraint for decades through its policy of keeping the nuclear option open. Unfortunately this was not adequately recognised and the noose of non-proliferation without disarmament was pursued by the nuclear weapon states and their allies who themselves are nuclear weapon states in security terms if not in legal terms."[3]
[1] Daniel Plesch, "Anarchy In Action: Western Policy on Weapons of Mass Destruction", Basic Paper No. 31, April 2000, pp 2-3
[2] Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, "Indian Draft Nuclear Doctrine: Some Reflections"
[3] Pugwash Newsletter, Vol. 36, No. 2, November 1999. p 76-77
John Moore is a Lecturer in Mathematics at Leeds College of Technology and an SGR member.
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