Nuclear Threat Reduction Measures for India and Pakistan (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Feb. 17, 2005 |
| Report Number |
RL31589 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Sharon A. Squassoni, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Since India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in 1998, there has been a debate on whether the
United States should provide assistance in making those weapons safer and more secure. In the
wake of September 11, 2001, interest in this kind of assistance has grown for several reasons: the
possibility of terrorists gaining access to Pakistan's nuclear weapons seems higher, the U.S.
military
is forging new relationships with both Pakistan and India in the war on terrorism, and heightened
tension in Kashmir in 2002 threatened to push both states closer to the brink of nuclear war. In
October 2001, media reported that the United States was providing assistance to Pakistan to keep
its weapons safe, although those reports have not been confirmed. Revelations in 2004 that Pakistani
scientist A.Q. Khan was selling nuclear technology (and reportedly a nuclear bomb design) to Iran,
Libya, and North Korea also helped to renew interest in making, in particular, Pakistan's
nuclear
weapons program more secure from exploitation. The report of the 9/11 Commission also called for
continued support for threat reduction assistance to keep weapons of mass destruction (WMD) away
from terrorist groups.
In the 108th Congress, the Nunn-Lugar Expansion Act (Section 1308 of FY2004 Defense
Authorization Act, PL 108-136) allowed the Department of Defense to spend up to $50 million in
unobligated funds on cooperative threat reduction (CTR) measures outside the former Soviet Union.
In the 109th Congress, it is likely that similar legislation will be introduced again. The Bush
administration used $20 million of CTR funds to dismantle chemical weapons-related items in
Albania, but proponents of expanding CTR have mentioned many other countries as possible
recipients: India, Pakistan, China, North Korea, Iraq, and Libya, to name a few.
This paper describes why Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) programs developed for the
former Soviet Union are considered models for assistance elsewhere and their potential application
in India and Pakistan. The paper considers the types of assistance provided under CTR and potential
constraints on U.S. assistance in this area, including domestic and international legal and political
restrictions on cooperation with states outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT); the low
level of cooperation and transparency exhibited by India and Pakistan; lack of incentives for India
and Pakistan to pursue threat reduction measures; and potentially competing objectives of threat
reduction and nuclear deterrence.
This report, which will be updated as events warrant, complements CRS Report RL32359 ,
Globalizing Cooperative Threat Reduction: A Survey of Options , and CRS Report RS21840(pdf) ,
Expanding Threat Reduction and Nonproliferation Programs: Concepts and Definitions .
