Pakistan’s Quest for Security and the Indo-US Nuclear Deal

Abstract

This study examines the imperatives of Pakistan’s security since independenceand how the failure of alliances with the United States forced Pakistan to seek securityfrom external threats through an indigenous deterrence capability. The turningpoint was the 1971 emergence of Bangladesh through the partition of Pakistan forcedby an Indo-Soviet axis. Subsequently, in 1974, India injected the nuclear factor intoSouth Asia. Pakistan then followed a path trodden by other nuclear nations in buildingthe bomb. The study also examines in detail the recent Indo-U.S. nuclear deal andits implications for South Asian security. However, Pakistan continues to play itspivotal role as a country that is at the center of gravity of both the campaign againstterror and confluence of South and Central Asia, driven by energy, and propellingPakistan to be the bridge between these two regions.For the first time in Pakistan’s history, it is now in a unique position to deteroutside aggression on its own without relying on external military alliances. In factthe main security threat is now of a different kind, with an internal dynamic giventhe holdovers of religious extremism and terrorism that was a fallout of the Afghanjihad of the 1980s. Pakistan’s pivotal role in promoting regional cooperation, therefore,stems in large measure, from growing self-confidence in ensuring its security as wellas the imperatives of building a vibrant economy and ensuring that its foreign policyis able to meet its and the region’s growing energy needs in the 21st century.The Korean Journal of Defense Analysis , Vol. XVIII, No. 2, Summer 2006, pp. 117137.