Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking account of Pakistan’s rise as a nuclear power draws on elite interviews and primary sources to challenge long-held misconceptions Pakistan’s pathway to developing nuclear weapons remains shrouded in mystery and surrounded by misconceptions. While it is no secret why Pakistan became a nuclear power, how Pakistan became a nuclear state has been obscured by mythmaking. In Pakistan’s Pathway to the Bomb, Mansoor Ahmed offers a revisionist history of Pakistan’s nuclear program and the bureaucratic politics that shaped its development from its inception in 1956 until the 1998 nuclear tests. Drawing on elite interviews and previously untapped primary sources, Ahmed offers a fresh assessment of the actual and perceived roles and contributions of the scientists and engineers who led the nuclear program. He shows how personal ambitions and politics within Pakistan’s strategic enclave generated inter-laboratory competition in the nuclear establishment, which determined nuclear choices for the country for more than two decades. It also produced unexpected consequences such as illicit proliferation to other countries largely outside of the Pakistani state’s control. As Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent program continues to grow, Pakistan’s Pathway to the Bomb provides fresh insights into how this nuclear power has evolved in the past and where it stands today. Scholars and students of security studies, Pakistani history, and nuclear proliferation will find this book to be invaluable to their understanding of the country’s nuclear program, policies, and posture.
Trade ReviewA timely and well-informed contribution to Pakistan military history and nuclear capability development. * Midwest Book Review *
The book is an important contribution to the academic literature on Pakistan’s nuclear history. It disproves the widespread myths surrounding Pakistan’s highly secretive nuclear project that have made it difficult to separate facts from fiction. Leveraging a range of previously unseen primary sources, Ahmed puts various conflicting historical events into welcome perspective. * International Affairs *
Mansoor Ahmed’s book, while purposefully pertaining to the realm of security and strategic studies, is a valuable contribution to the historical knowledge of Pakistan’s nuclear programme. * Cold War History *
Pakistan's Pathway to the Bomb offers a riveting new account that puts together some of the missing pieces in Pakistan's nuclear journey. Ahmed's work provides a compelling counter-narrative to various popular yet inaccurate beliefs. * International Affairs *
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Bureaucratic Inertia and the Nuclear Option 2. The Triumph of the Mythmakers 3. Facing the Smiling Buddha 4. The Enticing Centrifuge 5. Procurements and Politics of the Special Project 6. Trials, Tussles, and Uranium Enrichment 7. Achieving the Plutonium Ambition 8. Building the Nuclear Device 9. Competition, Command and Control, and the Nuclear Tests Conclusion Appendix 1: Major Figures in Pakistan’s Nuclear Establishment, 1960–2001 Appendix 2: The Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Program, 1972–2001 Appendix 3: Note on “Nuclear Danger from India” submitted to President Ayub Khan by Munir A. Khan and Abdus Salam, Summer 1967 Appendix 4: Newsletter of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission published in May 1974, a few days after India’s first nuclear test Appendix 5: A.Q. Khan’s handwritten private letter to Munir A. Khan, June 1976, on the status of the centrifuge project before he took over as project director a month later Selected Bibliography Index
