Postdoctoral Fellow

Draft—comments welcome, but please ask before you circulate or cite Karthika Sasikumar—India’s Debated Nuclear Status (Draft) 2 India’s nuclear ‘status ’ is subject to debate in two related spheres. First, does India possess nuclear weapons and can these ensure its security? Second, what is the country’s formal / legal status in the international nuclear order? In the last decade, it appears that both these questions have been resolved in the affirmative. India tested five nuclear devices in May 1998 and declared itself to be a Nuclear Weapon State. In 2005, an accord with the US on civilian nuclear co-operation symbolized India’s slow entry into the nuclear order. In this paper, I ask how India arrived at these resolutions. That is, how did Indian decision-makers fulfill their dual—often mutually contradictory objectives—of establishing that India has the capability and the will of a nuclear power, and of laying the foundations for its eventual acceptance into the nuclear order? I find tha