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,
Humaira Dar. (2019) France and Pakistan Quest for Nuclear Deterrence- A Response to the Issue of National Security, Journal of the Punjab University Historical Society, Volume 32, Issue 1.
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