About
- Nuclear Doctrine encompasses the dreams and missions that manual the deployment and use of nuclear weapons.
Key capabilities of India’s nuclear doctrine
- Building and retaining a credible minimum deterrence: Nuclear arsenals will be minimal enough to provide credible deterrence towards adversaries.
- A posture of “No First Use” (NFU): Nuclear weapons will most effectively be used in retaliation against a nuclear assault on Indian territory or Indian forces anywhere.
- Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) on each side: Nuclear retaliation to a first strike could be huge and designed to inflict unacceptable harm.
- Governance: Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) accommodates a Political Council and an Executive Council.
- Political Council: chaired by the Prime Minister, is the only body (civilian political management) that could authorize using nuclear weapons for retaliatory attacks.
- Executive Council: chaired by National Security Advisor, provides inputs for selection making by NCA and executes the directives given to it through the Political Council.
Other components of the doctrine
- Option of retaliation with nuclear weapons inside the occasion of a major chemical or a biological weapons (CBW) strike against India.
- Continuance of strict controls on export of nuclear and missile related materials and technologies and participation in the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) negotiations.
Moratorium on nuclear tests
- Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT): Prohibits all nuclear explosions; India did not sign because of loss of time-certain disarmament commitment through nuclear-weapon states.
- Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), 1968: Aimed at restricting spread of nuclear weapons through 3 pillars of non-proliferation, disarmament, and peaceful use of nuclear strength.
- India did not signal the treaty due to biases as it divided international into “nuclear haves” and “nuclear have-nots”
- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW): First legally binding agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons. India did no longer signal because it does not contribute to commonplace worldwide regulation or set new standards.
Global Multilateral export manipulate regimes
- India is a component:
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- Missile Technology Control Regime or MTCR (India joined in 2016)
- Wassenaar Arrangement (India joined in 2017)
- Australia Group (India joined in 2018)
- India isn’t always a Part: Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) 1974 which was established post-India’s 1974 nuclear test to prevent nuclear exports for weapon-making.
Way Forward
- Dedicated defence technology programs on the traces of Integrated Missile Development Programmes can be commenced to ensure capacity building along technological developments.
- Increasing flexibility on ‘big retaliation’ commitment: It can result in political actors escalating the nuclear war, thus limiting the retaliatory alternatives.
- To triumph over this, some ambiguities might be delivered in the doctrine which allows the country to reply to threats like TNWs without it escalating to a complete-fledged war.
- Synchronizing with evolving Foreign Policy in light of geopolitical changes.
- Periodic review in a constantly evolving geo-strategic global order. For instance, American and Russian governments overview their nuclear coverage periodically.
- The intensification of China-Pakistan relations and their growing nexus with Russia, in conjunction with geopolitical instability throughout the globe needs calibrated evaluation of India’s doctrine.
- Building upon its fame of an accountable nuclear power to turn out to be an ability chief for promoting international nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Following efforts may be made by India on this regard:
- Engaging in multilateral discussions at the UN and different structures which includes Conference on Disarmament to voice the security and non-proliferation problems regarding states like itself.
- Conducting open and obvious dialogues on nuclear associated problems with neighbouring nations as confidence constructing measures and convincing more countries to undertake NFU.
- Presently, China is the most effective nuclear nation in addition to India that professes to comply with the doctrine of NFU.
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