Nuclear and Arms Control

About Centre

Nuclear science and technology have impinged upon global politics and security studies for decades. IDSA has focused on the study of the political and strategic facets of nuclear science and technology since its inception and is known for providing a different perspective on global nuclear issues. The Institute has been at the forefront of shaping the debate on key nuclear issues in India and in the world at large. The Center for Nuclear and Arms Control is dedicated to advance research on strategic nuclear issues. It is engaged in projects that seek to provide answers to relevant policy questions relating to global nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation and anti-proliferation, nuclear energy, global nuclear governance, regional nuclear dynamics, Arms Trade Treaty, the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions, among others. Through its outreach activities, the Centre has disseminated its research output in the strategic studies and policy communities.

Members:

Rajiv Nayan Senior Research Associate

India and the Nuclear High Road: Nuclear Cooperation Agreements with Japan and Australia

Apart from the United States, India's nuclear cooperation agreements with Japan and Australia have been the most contentious domestically within those countries. The 'slow embrace' of India's civil nuclear credentials by Japan — given the four years for negotiations to begin (after the December 2006 Joint Statement which talked about discussions regarding such an agreement with India) in addition to the six years it took for negotiations to bear fruit — took place despite the strategic context of increasingly closer economic, political, and security ties.

A Shield Against the Bomb : Ballistic Missile Defence in a Nuclear Environment

For every major military invention in human history, there has quite always been a countervailing technology. Nuclear weapons have, however, remained an exception. Ballistic missile defence (BMD) has, in recent years, emerged as a formidable means to defend against nuclear-armed delivery systems though yet to prove their total reliability. What does the advent of BMD mean for the nuclear revolution – will it make nuclear weapons obsolete or in turn lead to a new arms race among great powers?

Global Strategic Trade Management: How India Adjusts its Export Control System for Accommodation in the Global System

  • Publisher: Springer
This book explores what military strategy is and how it is interconnected with policy on one hand and military operations on the other. In the process, it traces the transformation of the notion of strategy from its original military moorings to a more policy-oriented and-influenced conception and elaborates upon a tripartite framework of policy, strategy and doctrine to think about, understand, and analyse the use of force. The book explores the politics of India-Pakistan conflict in order to root the study of Indian military strategy in the political sphere. It discusses three main issues that have ensured the persistence of conflict: incompatible national identities, Pakistan's congenital quest for parity with and compulsion to challenge India, and irreconcilable positions on the Kashmir issue. The book argues that India has invariably pursued limited political aims that did not threaten Pakistan's survival or form of government or regime in power albeit containing a counter offensive elements. It states that India employed the strategy of exhaustion during the Indian Army's campaigns in the 1947-48 conflict and 1965 war, which made way to strategy of annihilation during the 1971 war (East Pakistan), but after Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapons capability the strategy is back to exhaustion. The book highlights the importance of designing an overall military strategy for waging limited war and pursuing carefully calibrated political and military objectives by creatively combining the individual doctrines of the three services by establishing a Chief of Defence Staff system.
  • ISBN: 978-81-322-3924-6 ,
  • Price: EUR 119.99/-

Asian Strategic Review 2014: US Pivot and Asian Security

  • Publisher: Pentagon Press

The “Pivot to Asia” strategy qualifies to be called Obama Doctrine: a part of Obama’s “grand strategy”. This policy may radically redefine not only the US engagement with Asia but also the Asian strategic dynamics. This book looks at various facets of the pivot strategy, to include US, Chinese, regional and country specific perspectives with an aim of providing greater clarity and understanding.

  • ISBN 978-81-8274-769-2,
  • Price: ₹ 995/-
  • E-copy available

India and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime – The Perennial Outlier

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN 978-11-0705-662-6
Price: Rs.895/-
The book describes India as a unique case of an outlier surviving outside the regime’s overarching system, as a nuclear-capable state with prolonged record of resistance (and selective adherence), but ending up seeking opportunities to engage with its normative structures. The ideological and policy shifts that had shaped India’s transformative journey from a perennial outlier to one seeking greater integration with the regime, though, also exemplifies the underlying strategic paradoxes and dogmatic incongruities. The book assesses how these dynamics will determine India’s role in global anti-proliferation and its status in the emerging global nuclear order.

Asian Strategic Review 2013

  • Publisher: Pentagon Press

It would not be a cliche to describe the strategic contours of Asia as being at the crossroads of history. A number of significant events are influencing the likely course that the collective destiny of the region could possibly take in the future. Some of the key issues and trends have been analysed in this year’s Asian Strategic Review

  • ISBN ISBN 978-81-8274-719-7,
  • Price: ₹ 1295/-
  • E-copy available

In Pursuit of a Shield: US, Missile Defence and the Iran Threat

The US pursuit of missile defence in order to counter and/or hedge against Iran's ballistic missile capabilities coupled with concerns generated by its nuclear programme has had significant strategic consequences. Iran on its part has pursued these capabilities as part of its asymmetric strategy to overcome its strategic vulnerabilities flowing from US encirclement, short-comings in force levels vis-a-vis neighbours and resource constraints in building effective conventional forces.

How Can Missile Defences Affect Nuclear Deterrence? An Offence-Defence Theoretical Perspective

How will ballistic missile defences affect nuclear deterrence? This is a question as old as the nuclear revolution but has attained significance in the current security environment wherein nuclear-armed states are increasingly pursuing development and deployment of BMD and their doctrinal integration with strategic forces and postures. Yet, the advent of BMD is bereft of conceptual clarity as their effects on nuclear deterrence is yet to be aptly understood.

Critical Analysis of India’s Safeguards Agreement INFCIRC/754 with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

India concluded a fresh safeguards agreement (INFCIRC/754) with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2009. All aspects of safeguards measures including the items to be safeguarded were deliberated upon, to ensure that India’s safeguards agreement does not result in giving any flexibility to India to use safeguarded items for unsafeguarded activities. The safeguards agreement INFCIRC/754 came with many additional features. Some of them are a result of the IAEA’s efforts to bring uniformity to subsidiary arrangements and structure and format for reporting requirements.

Indian Nuclear Policy—1964–98 (A Personal Recollection)

This is a personal recollection of the author on the evolution of the Indian nuclear policy and developments leading to the Shakti tests. Since it draws solely upon the author’s memory there could be errors and discrepancies in the account. This has been written in an effort to present a coherent and comprehensive account of the Indian nuclear policy, since, in the absence of an authoritative official document, there are considerable dissensions and misperceptions in the country.

Trump’s Own “Star Wars” The 2019 US BMD Review and What It Augurs for India?

The Trump administration’s BMDR, released in early 2019, can be described as the most proactive BMD plan since the SDI days with fillip given to areas like directed-energy, addressing gaps in boost-phase interception and harnessing the space frontier. Besides analyzing the BMDR threadbare, this Volume uses a hitherto unexplored cache of documents to reconstruct the anatomy of the India-US BMD dialogue so to ascertain why it failed and what the BMDR augurs for India’s BMD future.

Iran’s Nuclear Imbroglio at The Crossroads: Policy Options For India

On account of pertinent international, regional and domestic dynamics, the Iranian nuclear imbroglio is at uncertain crossroads. There are however reasons for optimism. This is because of Iran’s continuing engagement with the IAEA and P5+1 and strong opposition from major powers to a military solution. In the light of the above dynamics, the Paper points out dilemmas being encountered by India and ends by exploring possible policy options in the evolving situation.