India and Nuclear Arms Control: A Study of the CTBT

The Bush Administration's decision to pursue the National Missile Defense reveals a lack of consideration for the significant role that the present arms control regime has played in maintaining global stability, both during and after the Cold War. This paper examines how the global nuclear arms control architecture interacted with India after its nuclear tests in 1998, in particular the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the role that it has played in this context. India's evolving position with regard to the CTBT is examined, thereby revealing the crucial role that the nuclear arms control regime, of which the CTBT is an important part, has played in bringing about stability in South Asia in particular and international milieu in general. Discarding this arms control regime can have grave implications for global peace and stability.