Eating grass : the making of the Pakistani bomb / Feroz Hassan Khan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Khan, Feroz Hassan, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear weapons--Pakistan--History.

Nuclear weapons.

Pakistan--Military policy.

Pakistan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (550 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The history of Pakistan's nuclear program is the history of Pakistan. Fascinated with the new nuclear science, the young nation's leaders launched a nuclear energy program in 1956 and consciously interwove nuclear developments into the broader narrative of Pakistani nationalism. Then, impelled first by the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan Wars, and more urgently by India's first nuclear weapon test in 1974, Pakistani senior officials tapped into the country's pool of young nuclear scientists and engineers and molded them into a motivated cadre committed to building the 'ultimate weapon.' The tenacity of this group and the central place of its mission in Pakistan's national identity allowed the program to outlast the perennial political crises of the next 20 years, culminating in the test of a nuclear device in 1998. Written by a 30-year professional in the Pakistani Army who played a senior role formulating and advocating Pakistan's security policy on nuclear and conventional arms control, this book tells the compelling story of how and why Pakistan's government, scientists, and military, persevered in the face of a wide array of obstacles to acquire nuclear weapons. It lays out the conditions that sparked the shift from a peaceful quest to acquire nuclear energy into a full-fledged weapons program, details how the nuclear program was organized, reveals the role played by outside powers in nuclear decisions, and explains how Pakistani scientists overcome the many technical hurdles they encountered. Thanks to General Khan's unique insider perspective, it unveils and unravels the fascinating and turbulent interplay of personalities and organizations that took place and reveals how international opposition to the program only made it an even more significant issue of national resolve. Listen to a podcast of a related presentation by Feroz Khan at the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Map, Tables, and Figures

Preface

Pakistan: Key Characters

Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Atoms for Peace at the Crossroads of History

3. Ayub’s Non-Decision and the Nuclear Bomb Option

4. Never Again

5. The Route to Nuclear Ambition

6. Punishing Pakistan

7. Mastery of Uranium Enrichment

8. Procurement Network in the Grey Market

9. Building the Bomb

10. Mastery of Plutonium Production

11. Military Crises and Nuclear Signaling

12. Pakistan’s Missile Quest

13. The Grazing Horse in the Meadows

14. The Nuclear Test Decision

15. The Dawn of a Nuclear Power

16. A Shaky Beginning: Kargil and Its Aftermath

17. Establishment of Robust Command and Control

18. Testing the Deterrent

19. The Unraveling of the Khan Network

20. Nuclear Pakistan and the World

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804784801

0804784809

OCLC:

816041307