Nuclear Power in the Developing World (1982) explores the issue of nuclear power policies in developing countries. The sharp oil price rises of the 1970s attracted widespread attention to nuclear power as an alternative energy source, while some developing countries began attaining the technological ability to develop nuclear weapons programmes. While the search for energy should not be thwarted, the quest for nuclear weapons should not be promoted. The tension between these two goals has often led to confused export policies in the nuclear supplier nations. The author attacks this confusion at its source by examining first-hand the motives which drive nuclear policies in the developing world. He explores how security and economic objectives, domestic policies and foreign influence shape nuclear policies, enriching his analysis with examples from South American, African and Asian experiences. This volume also takes into account those without active nuclear programmes, to better understand how such programmes are born. This approach demonstrates that countries such as India, Pakistan and Argentina entertain different priorities from countries such as Brazil, Taiwan and the Philippines in promoting nuclear power.

The first systematic look at the different strategies that states employ in their pursuit of nuclear weapons Much of the work on nuclear proliferation has focused on why states pursue nuclear weapons. The question of how states pursue nuclear weapons has received little attention. Seeking the Bomb is the first book to analyze this topic by examining which strategies of nuclear proliferation are available to aspirants, why aspirants select one strategy over another, and how this matters to international politics. Looking at a wide range of nations, from India and Japan to the Soviet Union and North Korea to Iraq and Iran, Vipin Narang develops an original typology of proliferation strategies—hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding. Each strategy of proliferation provides different opportunities for the development of nuclear weapons, while at the same time presenting distinct vulnerabilities that can be exploited to prevent states from doing so. Narang delves into the crucial implications these strategies have for nuclear proliferation and international security. Hiders, for example, are especially disruptive since either they successfully attain nuclear weapons, irrevocably altering the global power structure, or they are discovered, potentially triggering serious crises or war, as external powers try to halt or reverse a previously clandestine nuclear weapons program. As the international community confronts the next generation of potential nuclear proliferators, Seeking the Bomb explores how global conflict and stability are shaped by the ruthlessly pragmatic ways states choose strategies of proliferation.