What steps need to be taken now to defuse the India-Pakistan nuclear crisis and to permit the lifting of economic sanctions?
Sanctions should be lifted only after each country unconditionally ratifies the CTBT, freezes production of military and civilian nuclear-explosive materials, and agrees to enter into negotiations with the other to cap and to roll back their nuclear weapons programs. Multilateral discussions to achieve these objectives should begin promptly. Those who rely on the truism that “nuclear weapons cannot be un-invented” miss the point. They also ignore the historical fact that Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, as well as South Africa, all once had nuclear weapons, but gave them up when they calculated that they would prove more of a liability than an asset. The responsibility of the international community is to do everything possible to guide India and Pakistan to the same conclusion. The worst mistake that could be made at this point would be to treat Indo-Pakistani nuclear weaponization as a fait accompli, and undertake misguided efforts to “manage” their arsenals, such as providing them
Related Questions
- What steps need to be taken now to defuse the India-Pakistan nuclear crisis and to permit the lifting of economic sanctions?
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