Fearful Symmetry: India-Pakistan Crises in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons

Fearful Symmetry: India-Pakistan Crises in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons by Sumit Ganguly and Devin T. Hagerty. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.

Ganguly and Hagerty's analysis of the nuclear tensions between India and Pakistan is timely. In the year following the book's release India-Pakistani relations have flared up with the Indian accusation that Pakistan is responsible for the Mumbai commuter train bombing. More recently North Korea's successful detonation of its first nuclear bomb has sparked new fears of another Asian arms race that threatens to draw in multiple nations now under the shadow of the country's nuclear strike range. These events further emphasize the need for the type of political analysis put forth in Fearful Symmetry.

Fearful Symmetry begins with the central question: why have the six India-Pakistan crises in the last...