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The US-India nuclear deal has stirred controversy within the US Congress and the Indian Parliament. The deal could ultimately improve and deepen relations between the world’s oldest and largest democracies. But it has focused concern on the potential for sparking nuclear war or an arms race in South Asia, and little or no attention has been paid to how the deal’s implementation might increase the threats of terrorism and military attack against Indian nuclear facilities.
These threats could grow in three ways. First, the deal can facilitate a substantial expansion of India’s plutonium stockpile in the civilian and military sectors. Plutonium, a toxic and fissile material, could, in the hands of skilled terrorists, fuel improvised nuclear devices—crude but devastating nuclear bombs—or radiological dispersal devices, one type of which is popularly called a “dirty bomb.”
Second, the deal can spur expansion of India’s civilian nuclear facilities, increasing the number of targets for terrorist or military attacks. Third, the deal brings India into much closer alignment with the United States. This alliance has already stirred animosity toward India from Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda. Moreover, closer Indo-American relations could also breed resentment in Pakistan and result in a more vulnerable India, especially in armed conflict involving the subcontinent's nuclear rivals.
This article appears in full on CFR.org by permission of its original publisher. It was originally available here.
