Nuclear Weapons and Conflict Transformation
The Case of India-Pakistan
By Saira Khan
Routledge – 2009 – 202 pages
Series: Asian Security Studies
This new volume explores what the acquisition of nuclear weapons means for the life of a protracted conflict.
The book argues that the significance of the possession of nuclear weapons in conflict resolution has been previously overlooked. Saira Khan argues that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by states keeps conflicts alive indefinitely, as they are maintained by frequent crises and low-to-medium intensity violence, rather than escalating to full-scale wars. This theory therefore emphasises the importance of nuclear weapons in both war-avoidance and peace-avoidance. The book opens with a section explaining its theory of conflict transformation with nuclear weapons, before testing this against the case study of the India--Pakistan protracted conflict in South Asia.
This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, IR and Asian politics and security.
Introduction Part 1: Theory 1. Studies on Conflict Transformation 2. Scholarship on Ramifications of Nuclear Weapons Acquisition 3. Elucidating Conflict Transformation with Nuclear Weapons Part 2: The India-Pakistan Protracted Conflict 4. Life of the Protracted Conflict 5. Introduction of Nuclear Weapons in the Conflict 6. Crises and Wars in the Pre-Nuclear Period 7. Crises and Non-escalation in the Nuclear Period 8. Futile Peace Initiatives in the Midst of Violence 9. Conflict Transformed 10. Potential for Conflict Termination. Conclusion. Bibliography
Saira Khan is at the University of British Columbia, Canada.