Dangers of Missile Race in South Asia: an India-Pakistan Perspective

Abstract

Both India and Pakistan have various operational missiles in their inventories. The expanding capabilities, marked by significant improvements in payload, range, reliability and accuracy, are not only threatening to push the region towards a debilitating arms race, but also have the potential to bring the nuclear armed adversaries a step closer towards the deployment of their strategic arsenals. At regional level, the inventory and types of missiles increase an escalation of tension between the relations of India and Pakistan on the one hand, and between India and China on the other. At global level, the developments in the South Asia have serious rather negative implications on the non-proliferation regime, and encouraging the other states to pursue nuclear and missile programmes. The present paper is a moderate attempt to investigate the various security implications of missile developments by India and Pakistan on global level in general and on South Asian region in particular.

Keywords: Ballistic Missiles, Missile Defence System, Non-Proliferation, Early Warning System, Arms Race, Security Implications, Delivery Systems, Missile Technology Control Regime.