World Politics and the Security of India

Ashok Kapur

Dr. Ashok Kapur is a Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This article was first published in the IDSA Journal, 3(4), April 1971, pp. 485-509. An… Continue reading World Politics and the Security of India read more

This article deals with two questions: first, what is the security framework in which an Indian decision-maker must operate? Secondly, what are the specific policy restraints which affect Indian decision-making? Both these questions are cast in terms of Indian nuclear policy and it is assumed that the actual existence of a conventional Indian military deterrent against China and Pakistan is a ‘given’ in the present military and political equation in South Asian politics. The argument of this paper centres on the problem of defining ‘security’. The question, it appears, is not merely one of semantics but one which lies at the heart of the mode of thinking of a decision-maker and an opinion-maker.