Strategic issues for South Asia

This book is an outcome of a conference held in October 2007 jointly by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the German Federal College for Security Studies, and the Institute of Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. The event brought together technical and non-technical policy analysts, academics, diplomats, and former and current government officials from India and Pakistan, among others.

A compilation of over two dozen papers, the volume provides perspectives from various vantage points on a number of strategic issues relevant to South Asia, from nuclear stability and missile defence to the energy security and the U.S.-India nuclear deal. These are issues of continuing importance to this part of the world, especially given the prickly and often hostile relationship between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, India and Pakistan.

What, for instance, would happen if a nuclear warhead, in either of the countries, got detonated by accident? Would the country concerned believe it had been attacked by the other and retaliate with a nuclear strike?

full review here Hindu