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S. Paul Kapur

 

 

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2008

Fall 2008

"Ten Years of Instability in a Nuclear South Asia"

Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 33

By S. Paul Kapur

Nuclear weapons have had two destabilizing effects on the South Asian security environment. First, nuclear weapons’ ability to shield Pakistan against all-out Indian retaliation, and to attract international attention to Pakistan’s dispute with India, encouraged aggressive Pakistani behavior. Second, these Indo-Pakistani crises led India to adopt a more aggressive conventional military posture toward Pakistan. This development could exacerbate regional security-dilemma dynamics and increase the likelihood of Indo-Pakistani conflict in years to come. Thus nuclear weapons not only destabilized South Asia in the first decade after the nuclear tests; they may damage the regional security environment well into the future.

 

2005

Fall 2005

"India and Pakistan's Unstable Peace: Why Nuclear South Asia Is Not Like Cold War Europe"

Journal Article, International Security, issue 2, volume 30

By S. Paul Kapur

Unlike in Cold War Europe, in contemporary South Asia nuclear danger facilitates, rather than impedes, conventional conflict.

 

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