The nuclear arsenals of China, India and Pakistan are growing
But the countries are not in an arms race—yet
For most of the 75 years since India and Pakistan became independent states, at midnight on 15th August 1947, nuclear weapons have cast a shadow over South Asia. China got the bomb in 1964, two years after thumping India in a border war and forcing its policymakers to confront their country’s vulnerabilities. India showed it too could build one with a demonstrative explosion just a decade later. Pakistan was a screwdriver’s turn away by the 1980s. In 1998, both India and Pakistan conducted nuclear-weapons tests, making official what was already an open secret.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “The three-body problem”
Asia August 13th 2022
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From the August 13th 2022 edition
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