Fundamental Deterrence and START III

The publics brief respite from the specter of nuclear holocaust abruptly ended in May 1998 when India, 24 years after its only successful nuclear weapon test, detonated five more just sixty miles from its border with Pakistan. The tests ignited fears of nuclear conflagration that had been dampened, if not prematurely extinguished, by the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly ten years earlier. Pakistan quickly declared itself a nuclear power and threatened tests of its own. Various capitals issued condemnations and an assortment of largely symbolic political and economic sanctions. India then proclaimed a moratorium on further testing and announced its willingness to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty as a declared nuclear power. Inevitably, Indias tests will prompt Pakistan and China accelerate their own nuclear programs, to the detriment of regional stability in South Asia. Americas chimera of nuclear nonchalance, if it ever existed at all, has certainly vanished.