Regional politics of the nuclearized subcontinent in the presence of protracted India–Pakistan rivalry has become a topic of immense importance and lacks a balanced approach internationally. The leading strategic circles of intellectual community always try to avail opportunities for discussing the South Asian nuclear race in a different perspective. No doubt, the environment caused by toxic Indo–Pak bilateral interaction under the nuclear shadow portrays a negative picture of regional politics, but it is a fact that an examination of South Asian nuclear attributes mainly study Islamabad’s nuclear weapon status instead of analysing New Delhi on an equal basis. A number of writers from diverse backgrounds have attempted to explore various dimensions of India–Pakistan enmity exclusively in post 1998 scenario because the invention of nuclear weapons in South Asian subcontinent has changed the regional security environment dramatically. An analytical overview of existing literature provides a thin layer of academically balanced and logically convincing arguments on contesting nuclear characteristics of Indo–Pak conflict.
Naeem Salik’s book Learning to Live With The Bomb, Pakistan: 1998–2016 provides an admirable account of impartial and scholarly arguments on Pakistan’s nuclear weapon status. The book describes the nuclear experience of Islamabad consisting of a detailed story of its nuclear journey starting from 1998, along with a brief account of pre-1998 nuclear journey. Brigadier (R) Naeem Salik, as an academician and research scholar has communicated his intellect at various national and international platforms. He has been a visiting scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University, the Brookings Institution, Stanford University, and the Stimson Center. As a prominent academician and a prolific writer, he has been teaching in Islamabad based universities. In 1998, he was Director Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) at the Strategic Plans Division of Pakistan. After completing his PhD from Australia he moved back to Pakistan and presently Dr. Salik is attached with an Islamabad based research organization, Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS). Naeem Salik, as a writer, has authored a book in 2009 The Genesis of South Asian Nuclear Deterrence: Pakistan’s Perspective. He has written numerous research papers generally on South Asian armed race. His recent contribution presents an updated version of Pakistan’s nuclear weapon status.
The eight chapters of Dr. Salik’s book starting from a comprehensive introduction in the first chapter and ending with a brief conclusion in the eighth chapter covers a broader nuclear journey of Islamabad. Chapter two starts the discussion by presenting the historical record of Pakistan’s nuclear program. A chronological detail emphasises the evolution of Islamabad’s nuclear capability in the changing regional and global political environment by providing archival details of institutional developments. The subsequent chapters cover the main theme of the book by presenting several interesting aspects of Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine, command and control structure, safety and security arrangements, export control regime and establishment of nuclear regulatory authority, from chapter third to chapter seven specifically. In this way, a consistent growth in nuclear learning can be traced in five different dimensions of Islamabad’s nuclear weapons status listed in the book.
The theoretical foundations, in the introductory part of the book, concentrate on the available literature to study Pakistan’s nuclear learning analogous to Cold War experiences of both US and USSR’s strategic behaviours. In the end, the chapter contains two annexures, Nuclear Learning Typology and Nuclear Learning Matrix, to summarise the theoretical understanding of the book (p.13 – 18). The conversation on doctrinal issues compares the various components of Pakistan’s doctrinal behaviour with the five established nuclear powers (p.88 – 100). The following portions of the book offer the evolutionary details of Pakistan’s nuclear learning in diverse directions largely covering the constant growth of doctrinal, technological, safety and security areas. Such practices of a nuclear state living in a hostile environment created by neighbouring nuclear power evidently shows the responsible behaviour of Islamabad. In short, the book contains an appreciable record of Islamabad’s institutional maturity before and after declaring of its nuclear weapons status internationally. In this way, a combination of pre-test and post-test scenarios in the antagonistic South Asian strategic culture caused by India shaped Pakistan’s nuclear weapon status which is a story that continuously goes parallel to the main theme of the book.
By communicating several of Islamabad’s initiatives, particularly in the field of nuclear safety and security which was greatly admired by IAEA coupled with the international strategic community, Dr. Salik attempts to objectively minimize Islamabad – specific criticism on South Asian nuclear race. In order to proclaim Pakistan as a legitimate and responsible nuclear weapon state, Naeem Salik has sparked a new debate by providing empirical evidence in support of his arguments. In other words, the study under Learning to Live With the Bomb is an endeavour to neutralize the overwhelming wave of critically examining Islamabad’s nuclear weapon capability. The different perspective contained in the book is an excellent addition to existing literature on the global spread of nuclear weapons generally, and their South Asian reach especially. Furthermore, the most exceptional dynamic of Salik’s study, unlike other international authors, explores Pakistan’s role in enhancing the mechanism of nuclear safety and security by learning from the experiences of other states. In this way, Islamabad‘s participation in various multilateral and bilateral initiatives clearly declared Pakistan a state which has learned to live with the bomb like other nuclear weapons states.
The book is a landmark contribution in the ongoing debate of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program by adding an updated account of Islamabad’s extensive institutional progress coupled with highly structured management of its strategic installations in the existing literature. In addition to his previous Book, the analysis of the author has cultivated a respectable position in the strategic community of South Asia generally and Pakistan specifically. The informative arguments of Dr. Salik could potentially help leaders of different capitals of the world to understand the latest status of Islamabad‘s nuclear weapons program. No doubt, the work of leading writers from Pakistan, Dr. Zafar Naaz Jaspal, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Cheema, Dr. Zulfqar Khan, Dr. Zafar Khan, and Dr. Rizwana Abbasi have produced excellent literature on regional nuclear order of South Asia, but the fresh study of Dr. Salik has moved the debate forward in a mature manner by updating the unending discussion on Pakistan’s nuclear weapon capabilities. Moreover, the international community could find the gradual process of Islamabad’s nuclear learning in the book which tries to proclaim Pakistan, a state mainly relaying the deterring effects of its nuclear weapons in the region, sensibly a responsible nuclear state. It is an exceptional work to weaken the western-oriented illegitimate grounds for victimizing nuclear Pakistan in the world of persistently swelling nuclear devices around the globe.
