In May 1998, India shocked the world - and many of its own citizens - by detonating five nuclear weapons in the Rajasthan desert. Why did India bid for nuclear weapon status at a time when 149 nations had signed a ban on nuclear testing? What drove India's new Hindu nationalist government to depart from decades of nuclear restraint, a control that no other nation with similar capacities had displayed? How has U.S. nonproliferation policy affected India's decision making? "India's Nuclear Bomb" is the definitive, comprehensive history of how the world's largest democracy, has grappled with the twin desires to have and to renounce the bomb. Each chapter contains significant historical revelations drawn from scores of interviews with India's key scientists, military leaders, diplomats and politicians, and from declassified U.S. government documents and interviews with U.S. officials. Perkovich teases out the cultural and ethical concerns and vestiges of colonialism that underlie India's seemingly paradoxical stance. India's nuclear history challenges leading theories of why nations pursue and hang onto nuclear weapons, raising important questions for international relations theory and security studies. So, too, the blasts in Rajasthan have shaken the foundations of the international nonproliferation system. With the end of the Cold War and an even more chaotic international scene, Perkovich's analysis of an alternative model is timely, sobering, and vital.

About the Author
George Perkovich is Director of the Secure World Program of the W. Alton Jones Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. His work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the Washington Post, and other publications.

Reviews
"One does not have to agree with all of Mr. Perkovich's arguments to recognize that much of what passes as conventional wisdom in international relations today is simply not true. Accordingly, his book is a useful antidote to many of the illusions of our age." - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Washington Times "Meticulously researched and well-written." - The Economist "Perkovich's epic book provides not only one of the most detailed and authoritative accounts of India's nuclear weapon programme but also one of the most cogent constructions of India's nuclear rationale." - W.P.S. Sidhu, Ethnic Conflict Research Digest "Perkovich has written the definitive account of nuclear decision-making in India. At the same time, he makes a major contribution to nonproliferation scholarship in general." - R.A. Strong, Choice "An extraordinary and perhaps definitive account of 50 years of Indian nuclear policymaking." - Foreign Affairs "Essential reading for those concerned with the issue of non-proliferation." - Robert W. Cahn, Nature "The most authoritative and exhaustive account so far of the development of India's nuclear programme since independence. This meticulously researched volume is an outstanding contribution to a subject mired in deliberate misunderstandings." - Gurharpal Singh, Times Higher Education Supplement "No book written in recent times - in fact, at any time since 1947 - on India's nuclear bomb can be compared to George Perkovich's book in its wide coverage, insightful research and sheer objectivity. In all these three departments this book excels beyond measure." - M. V. Kamath, The Daily Mail (India) "Rich, definitive...at all times fair. It is hard to see how it will be superseded." - Lawrence Freedman, Times Literary Supplement



Book Information
ISBN 9780520232105
Author George Perkovich
Format Paperback
Page Count 654
Imprint University of California Press
Publisher University of California Press
Weight(grams) 862g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 41mm