South Asia's Cold War

Basrur compares the India-Pakistan nuclear relationship with the American-Soviet Cold War. He argues that nuclear weapons have produced a kind of stability at the strategic level, while the conflict has been pushed down into sub-conventional violence and periodic crises, a pattern familiar from the earlier superpower rivalry.

The comparative approach is illuminating, and Basrur also considers what arms control and confidence-building measures might offer South Asia. It is a useful theoretical companion to the more historical accounts of the region's crises.