South Asia

Despite substantial progress in improving nuclear security in recent years, there is more to be done.  The threats of nuclear theft and terrorism remain very real. This presentation recommends learning from the much stronger national and international efforts in nuclear safety, and in particular, taking steps to build international understanding of the threat; establish effective performance objectives; assure performance; train and certify needed personnel; build security culture and exchange best practices; reduce the number of sites that need to be protected; and strengthen the international framework and continue the dialogue once leaders are no longer meeting regularly at the summit level. Matthew Bunn presented this talk, based on a recent paper, on July 3rd, 2013 at the International Conference on Nuclear Security in Vienna.

"It wasn’t that our motives were cynical or misplaced or that we wished misfortune for each other.  We were never adversaries.  In fact, time and again, from Harry Truman to JFK to Ronald Reagan, American Presidents called for a positive breakthrough in our relations with India.  But, more often than not, and for different reasons, we never found the trust that governments need to develop a true partnership. Happily, that all changed when, on the American side, President Clinton and then President Bush made the ambitious and prescient strategic bet that India would rise in our time as one of the world’s great powers and that therefore we had, as a matter of basic self-interest, to forge a much closer relationship with it."

Pakistan's October 6 presidential elections present a crossroads, with the possibilities of genuine democratic reform or continued military dominance both in sight.

Hassan Abbas and Samina Ahmed provided the analysis following the news story.

Remarks by Ashton B. Carter at the 36th IFPA-Fletcher Conference on National Security Strategy and Policy, Washington, DC.

Remarks by Ashton B. Carter at the Conference on "Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Current Challenges and New Approaches," at Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy.