New Nukes

India, Pakistan and Global Nuclear Disarmament

27 June 2000

Achin Vanaik

Praful Bidwai

Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik, two of India's most respected and experienced journalists and longtime anti-nuclear activists, examine the causes and consequences of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, and provide a framework for understanding the global context in which they occur.

The recent Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests brought nuclear proliferation and the terrible threat of nuclear war back to the world's center stage. The south Asian nuclear moves have raised regional tensions, transformed Kashmir into a potentially nuclear flashpoint, increased the poverty of already devastated populations, fueled a conventional and possibly nuclear arms race far beyond the borders of the two countries, and vastly distorted definitions of international status and influence. On the global level, the newest entries into the restricted club of admitted nuclear-capable nations have rendered obsolete the post-World War Two nuclear status quo.
Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik, two of India's most respected and experienced journalists and longtime anti-nuclear activists, examine the causes and consequences of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, and provide a framework for understanding the global context in which they occur. They also map out a new approach to nuclear abolition, in which not only south Asia's new nuclear states, but the oldest and mightiest Western nuclear powers would at last begin serious efforts towards full and complete nuclear disarmament.

June 2000

Olive Branch Press

Olive Branch Press (eds.)

1-56656-317-8

About the authors

Achin Vanaik

Retired Professor of International Relations and Global Politics from thë University of Delhi, Achin Vanaik is an active member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India). His books and writings range from studies of India's political economy, issues concerning religion, communalism and secularism as well as international contemporary politics and nuclear disarmament.

Praful Bidwai

Praful Bidwai is a political columnist, social science researcher, and activist on issues of human rights, the environment, global justice and peace. He currently holds the Durgabai Deshmukh Chair in Social Development, Equity and Human Security at the Council for Social Development, Delhi, affiliated to the Indian Council for Social Science Research.

A former Senior Editor of The Times of India, Bidwai is one of South Asia’s most widely published columnists, whose articles appear in more than 25 newspapers and magazines. He is also frequently published by The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique and Il Manifesto.

Bidwai is a founder-member of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India). He received the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize, 2000 of the International Peace Bureau, Geneva & London.

He was a Senior Fellow, Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. Bidwai is the co-author, with Achin Vanaik, of South Asia on a Short Fuse: Nuclear Politics and the Future of Global Disarmament, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1999, a radical critique of the nuclearisation of India and Pakistan and of reliance on nuclear weapons for security.

Recent publications from Peace & Security

How international rules on countering the financing of terrorism impact civil society Making banks and non-profits liable for the acts and social networks of their customers and beneficiaries while holding charities and CSOs responsible for the ‘extremist’ views and actions of their associates stifles freedom of association and expression and promotes self-censorship.	Guns, debt and corruption High levels of military spending played a key role in the unfolding economic crisis in Europe and continues to undermine efforts to resolve it.
Secrets, Lies, & Propaganda After the US embrace of torture after 9/11 it was only a matter of time before Hollywood decided to make a tribute to America’s liberal culture of torture for the big screen; Zero Dark Thirty	The Other Burma Northeast India's strategic location between India, China and southeast Asia has led to a recent boom in resource extraction and investment by multinational corporations, but the world continues to remain largely silent on the human rights abuses that continue to be perpetrated by the Indian military.