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:

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
    2019
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/-

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 2014: US Pivot and Asian Security

  • Publisher: Pentagon Press
    2014

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

Asian Strategic Review 2013

  • Publisher: Pentagon Press
    2013

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.

Nuclear Disarmament A Way Forward

  • Publisher: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
    2010

IDSA set up a Task Force to examine the issues concerning disarmament with Shri Satish Chandra, formerly India’s Ambassador to Conference on Disarmament and Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) as Chair. This report is the outcome of its deliberations. It seeks to examine the obstacles to nuclear disarmament and the manner in which they can be removed. It reiterates the dangers of the nuclear weapon states persisting with their current policies of privileging nuclear weapons in their security postures and neglecting their obligations under article VI of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

  • ISBN 81-86019-69-3 ,
  • E-copy available

Development of Nuclear Energy Sector in India

  • Publisher: Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses
    2010

The vision for the development of nuclear energy in India is not new. It dates back to pre-independence days. The nation had embarked on the development of large-scale infrastructure for nuclear power generation and building scientific-technological base for it. The process of the development of nuclear energy was, however, not smooth. It had to overcome enormous difficulties to reach the present stage. The obstacles it had to face were primarily due to the technology denial regimes adopted by various nations that either had the expertise or had harnessed nuclear energy.

  • ISBN 81-87363-98-3 ,
  • Price: ₹. 200/-
  • E-copy available

India in a Changing Global Nuclear Order

  • Publisher: Academic Foundation (2009)
    2009

This insightful book, with contributions by leading experts on the nuclear issue in India, covers all such important aspects and provides robust analysis of the global nuclear order in terms of its implications for India and global disarmament.

  • ISBN 978-81-7188-770-5,
  • Price: ₹. 895/-

Proliferation and Emerging Nuclear Order in the twenty-first century

  • Publisher: Academic Foundation
    2009

This book provides some important perspectives on the emerging nuclear order. The contributors discuss most burning questions of the day: What are the challenges to the global nuclear regime? What are the consequences of a nuclear Iran for West Asian peace and stability? Will it give rise to a nuclear quest among the important West Asian states?

  • ISBN 13-978-81-7188-752-1,
  • Price: ₹. 595 /-