Abstract
The journey of state security from conventional deterrence to nuclear
deterrence is covered with the death of millions during WW11. The attack of
American nuclear bomb on Japan transformed the old balance of power
system into balance of terror system and a race began among the nations to
get nuclear deterrence, so that they could secure their ‘existence’ in the world
arena. Nevertheless, the tragedy of the nuclear deterrence is that whenever a
state ‘acquired this (nuclear) capability, it involved with all its might to block
the ways and means of other states to acquire it. History of the nuclear
deterrence openly confirmed this hypothesis – it was either McMahon Act of
1946 or the declaration made by the Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG) in 1975 - both represent those conscious efforts which were made to keep away smaller
plus rival states from nuclear power group. However, in reality these efforts
were unsuccessful to restrict the proliferation of nuclear power. The American
use of nuclear bombs in Japan in 1945 gave birth to two major issues which
the policy makers needed to be answered – whether atomic power should be
used again against any state and how to prevent other states to acquire it. The
magnitude of destruction which world witnessed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
responded the first one positively negative but for the second the efforts are
still in progress. In spite of all global efforts either collective or individual, the
states which were determined to acquire the nuclear power, succeeded to
achieve it like France and Pakistan. This research focused not only the roots
of the obsession which forced France and Pakistan to be nuclear power and
announced it but also explains their attitudes towards the use of nuclear
power as security deterrence. Two major questions are tried to be answer in
this research: Why did France and Pakistan obsess to achieve nuclear
deterrence? How did they behave after achieving this technology?France and
Pakistan (especially), were those states, which began to achieve their nuclear
deterrence in that age when the world had two nuclear powers in case of
France (US/USSR) and five in case of Pakistan (US/USSR/UK/FR/CH). All
these powers were extremely obsessed to maintain the nuclear status quo in
the world, to keep their monopoly and greatness in the world. French and
Pakistani attitude towards the use of nuclear power as security deterrence
depends on the perceived level of threat perception that’s why France in
1990s even reached the conviction of Zero Option while for Pakistan nuclear
security is still a First Option.
Dr. Humaira Masood Dar. (2018) France and Pakistan Quest for Nuclear Deterrence: A Response to the Issue of National Security, Orient Research Journal of Social Sciences, Volume 3, Issue 1.
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