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Zia Mian

Peace & Security
Zia Mian

Zia Mian is a research scientist with the programme on science and global security, based at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is a columnist of Foreign Policy in Focus, and contributor to TNI's Militarism and Globalisation project

Recent content by Zia Mian

South Asia's misplaced confidence in nuclear technology (14 Apr 2011)

There are 20 nuclear power plants in India, two in Pakistan and plans exist to expand the industry across South Asia; yet there are always multiple risks that exist as a result of the technology that cannot be mitigated.

Obama’s Nuclear Postures (19 Jul 2010)

The latest US government nuclear review shows that Obama's nuclear policy - rhetoric aside - is no different to previous administrations, seeking to retain nuclear weapons for the indefinite future and accepting scant constraint on how these weapons might be used.

United States, Pakistan: the decade ahead (3 Nov 2009)

The recently approved multi-billion-dollar U.S. economic and military aid packages for Pakistan suggest that the US policy of prioritising security policy over development remains unchanged. This could lead to Pakistanis becoming even more hostile towards the United States

 

Nuclear promises (4 Jun 2009)

The leaders of the nuclear weapon states, led by President Barack Obama, are promising to abolish nuclear weapons. It is a good sign. But we have been here before. This time the world needs more than promises.

Pakistan, proliferation, and US priorities (25 Feb 2009)

The government of Pakistan released A.Q. Khan from house arrest earlier this month. The former head of the country's nuclear weapons uranium enrichment program had been detained since 2004, following revelations of his decades-long role as part of a nuclear black market selling nuclear technology, materials, and even nuclear weapon designs.

Washington responded with an awkward shuffle. When asked if, during his visit to Islamabad, White House Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke had expressed U.S.

Pakistan and the Islamist Challenge (8 Jan 2009)

The murderous assault on Bombay by Islamist militants, at least some of whom were from Pakistan, has exposed once again the grave danger that radical Islamist movements pose to Pakistan, its neighbors, and the world.

Pakistan’s American problem (11 Jul 2008)

The United States is struggling with Pakistan.

Going MAD: ten years of the bomb in South Asia (28 Jun 2008)

India and Pakistan have been talking peace since 2003, yet they have continued to expand their nuclear arsenals. This suggests a failure both of imagination and of political will to seriously engage with the nuclear danger. The peace process does not seem to recognise the fact that since the two countries conducted their nuclear tests in 1998 there has been a war and a major military crisis, both prominently featuring nuclear threats. Nuclear denial in south Asia is not a symptom of inattention, or passivity in the face of an overwhelming problem.

Ten years of the Bomb (16 May 2008)

It is 10 years since India and Pakistan went openly nuclear. The dangers of a nuclear South Asia are becoming more and more apparent, yet the governments of the two countries continue to build their arsenals. Both countries continue to produce plutonium for more and more bombs, both countries have been testing new kinds of delivery vehicles and both countries have conducted war games assuming the use of nuclear weapons. The pursuit of nuclear weapons is beginning to take, as elsewhere in the world, a logic of its own.

The costs of war (27 Mar 2008)

Five years ago the United States attacked and occupied Iraq. It has lost militarily, politically and morally. The end of the war may be in sight. But the consequences will endure, as will the deep-seated impulse among America’s leaders for global intervention without constraint.

The war has exposed the limits of American military power. The promise of a high-tech war of “shock and awe” quickly crumbled and has been all but forgotten.

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