Information Related to "Staying Alert in a Dangerous World: India and Pakistan"
| Audio/Video |
Staying Alert in a Dangerous World:
India and Pakistan
in Perspective
It's supremely important that you keep your finger on the pulse of our age, especially
on the world's recent nuclear developments.
by John Ross Schroeder
"Despite long-standing intelligence
monitoring, India's five nuclear tests on land . . . took the world by
surprise." So stated the June issue of the magazine Strategic Comments. So
much for stability in an uncertain age.
Two Eastern nations--India and Pakistan--rattled the relative peace and well-being
of the world with their recent nuclear tests and saber-rattling directed at each
other. The threat is made more ominous by a potential war that would be partially
motivated by deep-seated religious differences.
Not many years ago the Berlin Wall fell, and the communist Soviet empire virtually
collapsed. In those--from the Western point of view--heady days, some observers thought
it possible that the world was adopting a new order, one that would usher in an unprecedented
age of international cooperation. One hundred fifty nations soon signed a fairly
comprehensive treaty to ban nuclear tests.
Recent events show that no end to the nuclear threat is in sight. If more countries
develop or gain access to these nightmarish weapons, the world will become an even
more dangerous place. The West has solid reasons for wanting to contain the nuclear
spread. Yet Libya, Iran, Iraq and possibly North Korea are seen as nations with the
disconcerting capacity to gain nuclear arsenals in the not-too-distant future.
A Sobering Press Briefing
This writer recently attended a press briefing at the Foreign Press Association
in London at which Gerald Segal, director of studies at the International Institute
for Strategic Studies, analyzed recent India-Pakistan developments in the light of
the nuclear threat.
Dr. Segal lamented the harm done to the discernible progress that previously had
been made in limiting the nuclear threat. He noted that nations such as the United
States, Russia and Britain had already made drastic cuts in such weaponry and that
South Africa and Brazil had apparently pulled out of the atomic race.
Related Information on UCG Sites:
Table of Contents that includes "Staying Alert in a Dangerous World: India and Pakistan"
Other Articles by John Ross Schroeder
Pakistan: