Nuclear Pakistan

Shalini Chawla

Pakistan has relied for more than a quarter century on its nuclear weapons to conduct its strategy against India. The military’s grand strategy has rested on maintaining the centrality of the covert war (war through terrorism) strategy. Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons has been rationalised as a deterrent to Indian conventional military superiority which, its Foreign Minister had once stated, hangs like the Sword of Damocles over Pakistans head. In turn, this was used as an umbrella under which to pursue a proxy war through terrorism. Nuclear weapons have been perceived as a shield to deter an Indian aggression which possibly could be prompted in response to the provocative (sustained and/or high profile) terrorism being conducted from the Pakistani soil, sponsored by the state actors. Pakistan’s reliance on nuclear weapons has also grown much more with its growing instability and rising threat of failure of the state.

Shalini Chawla Dr Shalini Chawla is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), New Delhi. She was a Research Scholar at IDSA from 1999-2002. She joined CAPS in 2006 and specialises in Pakistan studies. She has written extensively in national and international journals relating to defence and security issues. She is a visiting Lecturer at the training establishments of the Indian armed forces and in universities. She has previously authored Pakistan’s Military and Its Strategy (2009).