India is the first of the states I will discuss who are not recognized by the non-proliferation treaty, but who are known to possess nuclear capabilities. India has a historic rivalry with China, as two of the largest nations in the world by land area, and the two largest by far by population. The BBC reports their shared border as being 2,520 miles long, which creates a lot of opportunities for border disputes between the two Asian behemoths. India and China faced off in a border war in 1962, in which India was embarrassed. In addition to this, India and China are both nations who sought to remain relevant to the powers of the world after the decolonization period post-World War II, and more recently striving to become superpowers in their own right. As we saw in Europe over the last few centuries, when some of the most prominent nations in the world are neighbors, wars tend to pop up very frequently. Because of the Sino-Indian rivalry, tensions were very high in India following China’s development of a nuclear weapon in 1964. Wexing Hu, in his article “India Going Nuclear: A Bomb Against China?” discusses the fluctuation in the relationship between India and China since that border war. The Sino-Indian border war was a major contributing factor to India’s initial foray into the nuclear picture, but other factors, such as the relationship between India and Pakistan, are also heavy
India is the first of the states I will discuss who are not recognized by the non-proliferation treaty, but who are known to possess nuclear capabilities. India has a historic rivalry with China, as two of the largest nations in the world by land area, and the two largest by far by population. The BBC reports their shared border as being 2,520 miles long, which creates a lot of opportunities for border disputes between the two Asian behemoths. India and China faced off in a border war in 1962, in which India was embarrassed. In addition to this, India and China are both nations who sought to remain relevant to the powers of the world after the decolonization period post-World War II, and more recently striving to become superpowers in their own right. As we saw in Europe over the last few centuries, when some of the most prominent nations in the world are neighbors, wars tend to pop up very frequently. Because of the Sino-Indian rivalry, tensions were very high in India following China’s development of a nuclear weapon in 1964. Wexing Hu, in his article “India Going Nuclear: A Bomb Against China?” discusses the fluctuation in the relationship between India and China since that border war. The Sino-Indian border war was a major contributing factor to India’s initial foray into the nuclear picture, but other factors, such as the relationship between India and Pakistan, are also heavy