Summary
This article by Ashley Tellis seeks to explain the logic, structure and utility of India's distinctive nuclear force posture. To that end, it is divided into three sections. The first section describes why the solution represented by the force-in-being today appears attractive to Indian policymakers in the context of other past efforts to operationalize similar strategic regimes. The second section describes in some detail the anatomy of the force-in-being itself. The third and final section explores the kind of nuclear posture that might replace the force-in-being after it has outlived its current utility as an instrument for safeguarding Indian security.
This article originally appeared in the Journal for Strategic Studies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley J. Tellis is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment. He is also a senior consulting fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. Before his current appointment at the Carnegie, he was commissioned into the Foreign Service with the U.S. Department of State and served as senior adviser to the U.S. ambassador
to India.