Assessing India's nuclear weapons posture: the end of ambiguity?

• Main Author: Davies, Scott D.
• Other Authors: Peter Lavoy
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2013
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/31969

This thesis examines the future of India's nuclear weapons posture. Since testing a nuclear device in 1974, India been able to produce weapons material within its civilian nuclear power program. Despite having this nuclear weapons capability, India prefers to maintain an ambiguous nuclear posture. New pressures in the post-cold war era -- the loss of the Soviet Union as a strategic ally, the indefinite extension of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, the rise of Hindu nationalism, and India's growing participation in the global economy -- have the potential to derail India's current nuclear policy. This thesis identifies the domestic and international pressures on India, and assesses the prospects for India to retain its ambiguous policy, renounce the nuclear option, or assemble an overt nuclear arsenal.