PAKISTAN’S NUCLEAR DETERRENCE: POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC DIMENSIONS

Abstract

Security is basically a relational phenomenon and an ambiguous concept.1 It is a broader idea than power, and it has the useful feature of incorporating much of the insight, which derives from the analysis of power.2 The principal dimension of security is maintenance of a people’s homeland, or even of their territories beyond the seas. It also means the maintenance of the world’s respect for them, the maintenance of their economic interests and core national values.3 In this context, security relates not only to the ultimate desire that the state survive, but also to the desire that it should live without serious external threat.