Deadly addiction: India and Pakistan on the nuclear brink

Abstract

The effects of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the political and moral context surrounding their use are discussed. The rationale for development of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons programmes are summarised and critically examined in comparison to the costs of the programmes and the social needs, which could have been addressed. Alternative routes to provide peace and security are proposed, both for India, Pakistan, and other nuclear-weapon states, with particular emphasis on the role of physicians and other health workers.

Keywords:

• India
• Military spending
• Nuclear deterrence
• Nuclear weapons
• Pakistan
• Peace through health

Acknowledgements

This paper is adapted from a talk in Hamilton, Ontario on Nagasaki Day, 9 August 2006 and from a presentation for Indian Doctors for Peace and Disarmament, Ludhiana 7 April 2002. I thank Navjyot Bedi, Floyd Rudmin, Mark Leith and Tordis S⊘rensen H⊘if⊘dt for constructive criticism.

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Notes on contributors

Neil Arya

Neil Arya is a family physician. He is a Lecturer in Peace through Health, Faculty of Humanities and an Assistant Clinical Professor, Faculty of Medicine, McMaster University and an Adjunct Professor of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo. He was President of Physicians for Global Survival and Vice President of IPPNW from 2000 to 2002.