Author: Dr. Natalia P. Romashkina
- Date: November 2007 -
The article carefully examines the historical conditions and security concerns that have led the two nations to take extraordinary risks and make extraordinary investments in their nuclear programs, which have led the two countries, independently, to their current status. The important role of geopolitics and the shifting - critical - relations with neighbors have greatly influenced the choices that each country has made.
The technical challenges associated with creating the necessary infrastructure to pursue a goal as costly and complex as the development of nuclear weapons are examined in the two cases as well. Finally, the role of other nations that made the development of these capabilities possible - more rapidly than either country could have done independently - is an important variable also considered/examined in this paper.
