Nuclear Deterrence Stability in South Asia

The Cold War was largely defined by the use of Nuclear weapons as a means of mutual deterrence which kept two blocks from full-scale conventional war. In a sense, the nuclear weapons provided the specter of Mutually Assured Deterrence (MAD) as a means of deterrence, it was these mechanisms of arms limitation and confidence- building that brought stability to the deterrence and controlled unfettered proliferation. The unique character of the South Asian Nuclear weapons triad, establishes the terms of stability of nuclear deterrence in the South Asian region and examines mechanisms to enhance the nuclear deterrence stability in the region. An assessment of the review of literature on the subject brings out that the difference between the Cold War and the Second Nuclear Age and the lack of control mechanisms have been examined to some degree since the turn of the century.