Flashpoints

A year ago, I traveled through the Indian subcontinent, talking to dozens of people about the prospect of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. It soon became blindingly obvious that scientists, military men, and officials in both countries believed war was inevitable. Some even advocated a showdown, nuclear or otherwise, to end the low-intensity conflict that has ebbed and flowed for the past 50 years. It was blamed for keeping the development of both countries shamefully behind that of their neighbors in more affluent East Asia.

In the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, I spent an evening with a nuclear physicist. “The explosion would be comparable to Hiroshima,” he said. “But India’s population density is such that a million could be killed with just one strike.”

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Humphrey Hawksley

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A year ago, I traveled through the Indian subcontinent, talking to dozens of people about the prospect of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. It soon became blindingly obvious that scientists, military men, and officials in both countries believed war was inevitable. Some even advocated a showdown, nuclear or otherwise, to end the low-intensity conflict that has ebbed and flowed for the past 50 years. It was blamed for keeping the development of both countries shamefully behind that of their neighbors in more affluent East Asia.

In the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, I spent an evening with a nuclear physicist. “The explosion would be comparable to Hiroshima,” he said. “But India’s population density is such that a million could be killed with just one strike.”