The May 1998 India and Pakistan Nuclear Tests

INTRODUCTION In September 1996 the United Nations voted to adopt a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which prohibits any nuclear explosions, whether for weapons or peaceful purposes. The outlawing of nuclear weapons tests significantly limits a country's ability to develop or improve a nuclear weapon, so a CTBT is considered the keystone to stopping nuclear proliferation. The concept of a CTBT started with the Eisenhower administration, so the 1996 vote was truly historic. However, the UN vote to adopt the CTBT was not unanimous: 158 countries voted in favor and 3 (India, Bhutan, and Libya) opposed it, with 5 abstentions. On May 11, 1998, the one declared nuclear state which was opposed to the CTBT shocked the world by conducting a nudear test in the Rajasthan desert in northwestern India. Two days later India announced that it had conducted two further tests, and government spokesmen claimed that India needs nuclear weapons to prevent “military adventurism” by neighboring Pakistan. On May 28, Pakistan's Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, announced...