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Rewriting third world security : a comparative study of nuclear discourse in Pakistan and India

University of British Columbia

Retaining the nuclear option has become an article of strategic faith and a symbol of national sovereignty in Pakistan and India. There is widespread belief among security analysts of South Asia that the popularity of the nuclear issue among the Pakistani and Indian masses makes it impossible for any government in Islamabad or New Delhi to tamper with the existing policies of nuclear ambiguity. In spite of the domestic roots of the nuclear politics in the subcontinent, existing literature does not tell us how an issue which requires considerable scientific knowledge has assumed such political salience. This study attempts to redress this gap by offering an explanation and analysis of the gradual ascendance of the nuclear issue in the dominant security discourse of Pakistan and India. This study employing the methodology of the discourse analysis accounts for the dynamics that propel the politics of the nuclear issue in the subcontinent. As the overwhelming majority of studies of the nuclear issue approach the matter with theoretical lens of Political Realism, scant attention is paid to the question of the discourse on national identities and imperatives of domestic politics in which the nuclear issue is firmly embedded. Political Realism's assumption of states as undifferentiated entities forecloses possibility of looking inside the state to account for its security policies. The "weak state" perspective attempts to rectify this theoretical limitation by emphasizing the internal characteristics of the Third World states. However, this dissertation argues that the "weak state" framework concerns itself with symptoms rather than processes underway in the Third World. Given these analytical limitations, this study using insights of Critical Security Studies explains how and why the nuclear issue has assumed such an important place in the security discourse of Indian and Pakistan. Comparing the two discourses, the dissertation shows how the politics of the nuclear issue can be meaningfully understood by locating it in the broader context of national identity formation processes in the both countries. This objective is achieved by critically analyzing the works and words of leading politician, strategic analysts, and opinionmakers of Pakistan and India.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-07-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10213

Political Science

University of British Columbia

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