The recent Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests brought nuclear proliferation and the terrible threat of nuclear war back to the world's center stage. The south Asian nuclear moves have raised regional tensions, transformed Kashmir into a potentially nuclear flashpoint, increased the poverty of already devastated populations, fueled a conventional and possibly nuclear arms race far beyond the borders of the two countries, and vastly distorted definitions of international status and influence. On the global level, the newest entries into the restricted club of admitted nuclear-capable nations have rendered obsolete the post-World War Two nuclear status quo.

Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik, two of India's most respected and experienced journalists and longtime anti-nuclear activists, examine the causes and consequences of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests, and provide a framework for understanding the global context in which they occur. They also map out a new approach to nuclear abolition, in which not only south Asia's new nuclear states, but the oldest and mightiest Western nuclear powers would at last begin serious efforts towards full and complete nuclear disarmament.