After the Tests: U.S. Policy Toward India and Pakistan

The spring 1998 Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests made South Asia and the world a more dangerous place, says this Independent Task Force. This report recommends that the immediate objectives of U.S. foreign policy should be to encourage India and Pakistan to cap their nuclear capabilities at or near their current levels and to reinforce the global effort to stem the horizontal and vertical proliferation of nuclear weapons and advanced delivery systems. At the same time, the Task Force emphasizes that the United States has important interests in South Asia in addition to those relating to proliferation. Those include preventing conflict; promoting democracy; expanding economic growth, trade, and investment; and cooperating with India and Pakistan on global challenges.