May 26, 2023
A Nuclear Collision Course in South Asia
In the summer of 2021, the world learned that China was dramatically expanding its nuclear arsenal. Satellite imagery showed Beijing building as many as 300 new ballistic missile silos. The Pentagon now projects that China’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, which had for years rested in the low hundreds, could spike to 1,500 warheads by 2035, confirming suspicions that Beijing has decided to join Russia and the United States in the front rank of nuclear powers.
The prospects for sustaining this era of minimum deterrence appear increasingly shaky.
Security experts are only beginning to sort through the implications of China’s nuclear breakout. They would do well to consider Ashley Tellis’s new book, Striking Asymmetries, which assesses the implications of Beijing’s actions from the vantage point of the rivalries between South Asia’s three nuclear powers: China, India, and Pakistan. In a work that should be required reading for senior political and military leaders, Tellis presents a compelling case why this tripolar nuclear system, which has for decades remained remarkably stable, may be on the verge of becoming far more dangerous.
Read the full article from Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
The Pentagon Is Using Artificial Intelligence Right Now. Here’s How.
Video
Artificial intelligence is the future of the military, or so Pentagon leaders keep saying. But is it the future — or is that future already here? That’s the question Breaking ...
By Josh Wallin
-
Stuck in the Cul-de-Sac
Reports
For more than a decade, the United States has sought to modernize its military to deter China, but it has become stuck in a developmental cul-de-sac that has allowed China to ...
By Carlton Haelig & Philip Sheers
-
North Korea Hardens Posture as Allies Recalibrate Before APEC
Video
With President Trump set to attend the APEC summit in Gyeongju, questions are resurfacing about a possible return to U.S.–North Korea diplomacy. No working-level talks are und...
By Dr. Go Myong-Hyun
-
Sharper: India and the Quad
Commentary
Despite recent bilateral challenges, India’s relationship with the United States and its leadership within the Quad remains indispensable for an Indo-Pacific that is cooperati...
By Keerthi Martyn & Charles Horn
