South Asia

If a regional nuclear war were to break out anywhere, most experts think that it is most likely to happen in India and Pakistan. Such a conflict would have dire consequences in loss of life, food insecurity and direct deaths from the bombs themselves. Following is analysis and opinion from Ploughshares Fund staff, grantees and guests on the ongoing struggle to deal with nuclear weapons in South Asia.

  • Four Internews Network staff injured in Pakistan blast

    Four staff members of Internews Network were injured in a bomb blast outside a hotel in Pakistan; fortunately their injuries were not life-threatening. The powerful explosion outside the hotel killed at least 11 people and wounded 55, media are reporting. Initial news reports say that gunmen opened fire on guards at the hotel and then drove a vehicle loaded with explosives at a security checkpoint.  

    June 9, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • New Crisis Group report on Pakistani refugees

    U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke visited Pakistani refugees who have fled fighting in the Swat region between their country's military and Taliban guerrillas. Ambassador Holbrooke told refugees that the U.S.

    June 4, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • CRS reports Pakistan may have second-strike capability

    A Congressional Research Service report says Pakistan may have developed a second-strike capability — and nuclear parity with India.  Facing a choice between redeploying its arsenal to multiple locations, as it did in 2001 as the U.S.

    May 31, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • Another nuclear anniversary

    by Pervez Hoodbhoy

    Once upon a time making nuclear bombs was the biggest thing a country could do. But not any more; North Korea’s successful nuclear test provides rock-solid proof. This is a country that no one admires.

    May 28, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • What do changes in Pakistan's nuclear program mean?

    A recent Washington Post article reported Pakistan’s construction of a facility to produce plutonium, rather than uranium, for its nuclear arsenal.  The Ploughshares

    May 28, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • Proliferation challenge goes far beyond North Korea

    North Korea's second nuclear test, which has the Obama administration scrambling for an effective response, poses a far greater proliferation challenge than merely figuring how to make Pyongyang change course."North Korea's thrown something in our face that we have to deal with now and it co

    May 26, 2009 - By Deborah Bain

  • Frederick Barton: Bring 'people power' to Pakistan

    In an opinion piece for Christian Science Monitor, Frederick Barton of the Ploughshares-funded Center for Strategic and International Stud

    May 19, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • Pakistan rapidly building nuclear arms, U.S. says

    Members of Congress were told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while wracked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.&nbsp

    May 17, 2009 - By Sarah Brown

  • A "Springtime of Hope" for Disarmament

    "We are certainly in a springtime of hope after the dark winter of discontent in the disarmament field," said Ploughshares Fund advisor Jayantha Dhanapala, following a speech to the UN by

    May 13, 2009 - By Deborah Bain

  • Nuclear Experts Offer Draft Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty

    A panel of nuclear experts yesterday presented a proposed version of a long-awaited international treaty to ban the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.  President Barack Obama said last month that establishing a cutoff treaty would be one of the "concrete steps toward a

    May 12, 2009 - By Deborah Bain