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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das
@debak.bsky.social
1.4K followers 1.1K following 120 posts
Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs, University of Denver | PhD from Cornell | International Security, Nuclear Weapons, Foreign Policy | Affiliate at Stanford CISAC, Sciences Po (Paris) www.debakdas.com
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
🚨 Where is nuclear competition in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific today? What impact does US-China competition have on nuclear proliferation in Southern Asia?

I answer these questions in my new Texas National Security Review piece: tnsr.org/wp-content/u...
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Reposted by Debak Das
stanfordcisac.bsky.social
Stanford CISAC @stanfordcisac.bsky.social · 6d
A new roundtable by CISAC affiliate @laurensukin.bsky.social and Rohan Mukherjee examines the evolving global nuclear order, with several papers by former CISAC postdocs that show the interconnected nature of nuclear challenges and the vital role of domestic politics.
tnsr.org
Texas National Security Review @tnsr.org · 8d
Our latest roundtable examines the rapidly evolving global nuclear order. From North Korea to NATO, China to Latin America, this collection of essays explores the domestic and international forces reshaping nuclear security.

Full roundtable: tnsr.org/roundtable/n...
Navigating the New Nuclear Map - Texas National Security Review
The global nuclear order is undergoing rapid and complex transformations, driven by the expansion of arsenals, evolving doctrines, and the interplay of domestic and international politics. This roundt...
tnsr.org
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
Many thanks to @laurensukin.bsky.social and @rohanmukherjee.bsky.social for organizing this fantastic roundtable on Navigating the New Nuclear Map!

Read the whole roundtable here: tnsr.org/roundtable/n...
Navigating the New Nuclear Map - Texas National Security Review
The global nuclear order is undergoing rapid and complex transformations, driven by the expansion of arsenals, evolving doctrines, and the interplay of domestic and international politics. This roundt...
tnsr.org
1
debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
Within Southern Asia, states are seeking space to escalate at lower levels of conflict to address nuclear & military asymmetry. Pakistan is seeking to create space to escalate at lower levels of conflict against India, while India is doing the same against Pakistan on one side & China on the other.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
While Washington & Beijing are responding to each other’s nuclear arsenals, India is responding to China’s arsenal, & Pakistan is responding to India’s nuclear modernization. The technology transfers and submarine proliferation in the Indo-Pacific precipitated by AUKUS are intensifying this dynamic.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
There is a cascade of reactionary vertical proliferation that is occurring in the Indo-Pacific as a result of China-US strategic competition.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 1d
🚨 Where is nuclear competition in South Asia and the Indo-Pacific today? What impact does US-China competition have on nuclear proliferation in Southern Asia?

I answer these questions in my new Texas National Security Review piece: tnsr.org/wp-content/u...
1 1 4
debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 6d
It was a delight to discuss the Global Nuclear Order and the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Systems at the Athenaeum series at Claremont McKenna College earlier this week! @cmc.edu
Reposted by Debak Das
josefkorbelschool.bsky.social
Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs - DU @josefkorbelschool.bsky.social · 8d
Read @debak.bsky.social in a new @tnsr.org roundtable: From India–Pakistan skirmishes to US–China rivalry, nuclear stability in Southern Asia is under pressure. Factor in AUKUS-driven sub tech transfers, and the risk of escalation grows.
Navigating the New Nuclear Map - Texas National Security Review
The global nuclear order is undergoing rapid and complex transformations, driven by the expansion of arsenals, evolving doctrines, and the interplay of domestic and international politics. This roundt...
tnsr.org
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Reposted by Debak Das
tnsr.org
Texas National Security Review @tnsr.org · 8d
How is U.S.—China rivalry fueling a dangerous cascade of nuclear proliferation across Southern Asia? @debak.bsky.social explores the ripple effects of AUKUS and regional competition.

📖 Read here: tnsr.org/roundtable/n...
"Cascades of Competition: Southern Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and AUKUS" by Debak Das Nuclear stability in Southern Asia is being shaped by different layers of competition in the Indo-Pacific. This article highlights two dynamics that are shaping nuclear competition in the region. The first, within Southern Asia, is states finding space to escalate at lower levels of conflict to address nuclear and military asymmetry. Pakistan is seeking to create space to escalate at lower levels of conflict against India, while India is doing the same against Pakistan on one side and China on the other. The second dynamic is a cascade of reactionary vertical proliferation that is occurring in the Indo-Pacific as a result of China and the United States’ strategic competition. While Washington and Beijing are responding to each other’s nuclear arsenals, India is responding to China’s arsenal, and Pakistan is responding to India’s nuclear modernization. The technology transfers and submarine proliferation in the Indo-Pacific precipitated by AUKUS are intensifying this dynamic.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 15d
One year unilateral adherence to New START treaty being proposed by Moscow is a positive sign that the last remaining arms control mechanism between the US and Russia does not need to disappear after February 2026. #ArmsControl #NukeSky

nbcnews.com/world/russia...
Putin says Russia will stick to nuclear arms limits for 1 more year
The Russian president said that the termination of the 2010 New START would have negative consequences for global stability.
nbcnews.com
debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 20d
Congratulations, Chris!
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Reposted by Debak Das
eunajo.bsky.social
Eun A Jo @eunajo.bsky.social · 23d
I’m happy to share this paper in @cpsjournal.bsky.social on democracy and national narratives, with insights from South Korea and Taiwan. It is part of a special issue on postcolonial narratives with @paulschuler.bsky.social, @deandulay.bsky.social, + others.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
This paper explores how democratization can reconstitute understandings of nationhood by empowering a new class of “storytelling elites”---those with the institutional and rhetorical resources to challenge the state’s narrative. In this critical juncture, storytelling elites may challenge (1) the bottom-line premise or (2) the sideline elements of the prevailing national narrative. Their narrative strategies, in turn, shape how the terms of the debates are redefined and structured under democracy. I develop this argument through a comparison of “One Korea” and “One China” narratives in postwar South Korea and Taiwan. Using interpretive process tracing of archival and other qualitative data, I find that democracy helped entrench “One Korea” narratives in South Korea but displace “One China” narratives in Taiwan, as new storytelling elites challenged dominant narratives of “oneness” to varying degrees. This resulted in increasingly divergent support for unification as a national objective, with enduring implications for peace.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
Ultimately, the Space Launch Vehicle-3 was successfully launched in July 1980. A few years later, the first stage of the solid fuel SLV-3 became the first stage of the nuclear-capable Agni IRBM that is today in India's nuclear forces.
debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
Confirming these assessments in 1979, Satish Dhawan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, told the Indian Parliament consultative committee that the Space Launch Vehicle, SLV-3, could, after some modifications, be used as an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM).
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
In 1978, France concluded that all indicators in India’s space program—building laboratories for solid and liquid fuels, acquiring the license for the Viking engine, and India’s cooperation in the Ariane program—could be interpreted as a strong signal to acquire nuclear weapons.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
India collaborated with France on space technology through the 1970s. French MoD discussed France's space technology for a potential Indian nuclear delivery system in April 1976. It concluded that the bilateral cooperation in space concerned both civilian and military domains.
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
Meanwhile, even within the Indian government, it was suspected that INSAT (Satellite program) for TV was “the public rationale for the nation pursuing an ambitious space programme, particularly the development of very large rockets…broadly equivalent to inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM).”
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
The U.S. tried to stop India. Daniel Moynihan, US ambassador to India, said to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that Washington should get India to privately agree “to go very slow in testing. Nothing more for a year or two. No weapons. Rocketry restraint. No missile system.”
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
After India's Peaceful Nuclear Explosion in 1974. A NATO Situation Room Report stated that India could have a modest nuclear strike force three years after deciding to go ahead
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · 22d
🧵 How did India acquire space technology that it then used for nuclear-capable ballistic missiles?

- It got technology from France to build the Space Launch Vehicle-3 rocket that became the Agni ballistic missile

- ISRO tech was used by DRDO #NukeSky

Read here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Explaining the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Vehicles
How and why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? This article identifies a permissive environment in the nonproliferation regime shaped by three drivers for proliferation: First, the multipurp...
www.tandfonline.com
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Reposted by Debak Das
bridgingthegap.bsky.social
Bridging The Gap @bridgingthegap.bsky.social · 29d
BTG alum Debak Das just published Explaining the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Vehicles in Security Studies. Check in out below.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Explaining the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Vehicles
How and why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? This article identifies a permissive environment in the nonproliferation regime shaped by three drivers for proliferation: First, the multipurp...
www.tandfonline.com
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · Sep 8
Thanks, Haleema!
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · Sep 6
Thank you!!
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Reposted by Debak Das
josefkorbelschool.bsky.social
Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs - DU @josefkorbelschool.bsky.social · Sep 5
Korbel Prof @debak.bsky.social: Given the recent crises over China’s new ICBM silos, Iran’s ballistic missile testing, and North Korea’s continued expansion of missile forces, policymakers need to understand how states proliferate nuclear delivery vehicles to be able to limit their spread.
debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · Sep 5
🚨 How & why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? My article on the spread of delivery vehicles is out at Security Studies! #OpenAccess

It explains:
- Why the NPT allows nuclear delivery vehicles to spread
- How did India acquire its #nuclear delivery technology
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Explaining the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Vehicles
How and why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? This article identifies a permissive environment in the nonproliferation regime shaped by three drivers for proliferation: First, the multipurp...
tandfonline.com
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debak.bsky.social
Debak Das @debak.bsky.social · Sep 5
🚨 How & why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? My article on the spread of delivery vehicles is out at Security Studies! #OpenAccess

It explains:
- Why the NPT allows nuclear delivery vehicles to spread
- How did India acquire its #nuclear delivery technology
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Explaining the Proliferation of Nuclear Delivery Vehicles
How and why do nuclear delivery vehicles proliferate? This article identifies a permissive environment in the nonproliferation regime shaped by three drivers for proliferation: First, the multipurp...
tandfonline.com
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