Abstract:
With ongoing conflicts against two countries located directly to its borders, India
developed nuclear weapons as a means to assure their survivability amidst the
growing tension with Pakistan and China. However, India shows contradictory
behaviour within its bilateral relations with both countries, whereas India has a
highly hostile relations with Pakistan yet a rather cooperative relations with China.
Ideally, accumulation of nuclear power will increase tension and lead to a more
conflictual relationship. To answer this anomaly, this thesis will use the posture
optimization theory to examine the factors that influence the state’s final posture
adoption. This thesis will compare two cases of India’s nuclear conflicts with
Pakistan and China to qualitatively see the implication of posture adoption to
bilateral relationships. The analysis shows that India’s adoption of assured
retaliation posture against Pakistan aims to deter directly with their nuclear
capabilities, while adopting the catalytic posture to shift China’s focus to the U.S.
as India’s patron. As a result, India's tendency to be defensive yet assertive towards
Pakistan raises the hostility among both of them. On the contrary, the existence of
the U.S. deters disproportionate offensives from China against India, enabling them
to have a degree of trust to establish cooperation.
