One of the most prominent topics in the recent news has been nuclear weapons for many reasons. Many people are concerned of the power and strength that these weapons possess and there is an overall fear of these weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people. The United States has also taken the concern of nuclear weapons very seriously. When new states build and test these weapons, the United States steps in and makes sure that it is being kept under control. These states continue to build and test nuclear weapons for three mains reasons. According to Scott D. Sagan, these three main reasons are known as the national security, domestic politics, and norms model. Under the security model, the main reason for the production and testing of these weapons is for, precisely what it sounds like, protection. These states build the weapons to protect themselves against a threat. Certain smaller states also join alliances with nuclear weapon states under this model because these bigger nuclear weapon states provide protection to the smaller states. Under the second model, the domestic politics model, states build and test nuclear weapons because the government and those in power see to it as beneficial for the state. When new leaders are elected or placed in power, they have the choice to be for or against the nuclear weapons programs in their states and this creates the domestic politics model. The third model is known as the norms model. Under the norms model, these states build or cease to build nuclear weapons depending on what is popular at the time. If the state does not see the importance of having nuclear weapons and sees it as an unattractive possession, they will restrain from building these weapons under this model. According to Sagan, each state that instilled or removed their nuclear weapons programs did so for one of the three models. While within each case there may be reasons for each model, one model will fit better than the other two. One state that has built a nuclear weapons program is India.
The development of nuclear weapons took a very long time in India. Following China’s nuclear weapon testing, India experienced 10 years of battles within their own government. For those ten years, each new president and prime minister would consider establishing a proliferation program and then proceed to publicly reject the idea. This happened until Vikram Sarabhai took office and was completely against a proliferation program. Following his passing, Indira Gandhi took office and, without hesitation, formed the proliferation program.
The national security model is an endless cycle of proliferation. When one state feels threatened, they build nuclear weapons to try and restore some balance. However, when the new state build nuclear weapons, it creates a new threat for a different state which then decides to build nuclear weapons to maintain balance once again and the cycle continues. This fits India’s proliferation because the threat of China’s nuclear weapon testing started the debate of proliferation within India. This model would not work in every case because usually under the security model, states build weapons to combat the treat, but not every state decides to build nuclear weapons. These states proliferation cases usually involve one of the two remaining models.
The second model is the domestic politics model. Under the domestic politics model, the state will either attempt to develop nuclear weapons technology or not based on what those in office favor. This is important because under this model, states could build nuclear weapons simply because the leader of that state wanted it with no real threat needed. This model fits India’s proliferation because the nation did not build nuclear weapons when there was debate of it going on but one Gandhi was in office, she immediately decided and took matters into her own hands. This model would not fit every proliferation case because some government leaders might be against nuclear weapons but decide to build nuclear weapons as a defense against a nearby threat.
The last model is the norms model. This model explains that whatever is seen as the “normal” or popular idea is what will predominate during that time. For instance, if being a nuclear weapon state is celebrated during a certain time period, more states will be trying to build nuclear weapons. This model does not really fit with India’s proliferation case because of the debate that was going on for 10 years in India’s government. If it was a norms model, India would have started building the program once China did, not because of the threat but, because it was what other nations were doing.
There has been debate over the model that best fits India’s case. Some believe that the national security model fits best while others believe that the domestic policy model fits best. While India’s case does have some aspects that fit each of the two models, the best model is the domestic policy model. This is because, India finally formed a proliferation program after a change of leadership which is usually what happens in the domestic politics model. If the national security model fit best then the proliferation program would have been established right after a threat was demonstrated.