Global No First use policy

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The strategy to reduce the usage of nuclear weapons has to shift from non-proliferation to no-first use policy in the 21^st century.

What is a No first use policy?

A No First Use pledge(NFU) or a policy refers to any authoritative statement by a nuclear weapon state to never be the first to use these weapons in a conflict.
It will be reserved strictly only to retaliate in the aftermath of a nuclear attack against its territory or military personnel.
These pledges are a component of a country’s nuclear declaratory policies.
As such, there is no diplomatic arrangement to enforce a declaratory NFU pledge.
States with such pledges would be technically able to still use nuclear weapons first in a conflict.
China is the only nuclear weapon state to maintain an unconditional NFU pledge.
China declared its NFU policy in 1964, and has since maintained this policy.
India first adopted a "No first use" policy after its second nuclear tests, Pokhran-II, in 1998 and articulated the policy in 2003.

What is the need for a GNFU policy?

The method of trying to prevent more countries from possessing a nuclear weapon has failed.
They first selectively proliferated nuclear weapons technology to their allies, while trying to keep it away from their adversaries.
Though they promised to disarm it later, they demanded the rest of the countries to not build their own arsenals in return.
They pulled out of this promise too later and decided that they’ll keep their bombs in perpetuity, while insisting that the rest forever uphold their no-bomb commitments.
However, it became inevitable that the countries like India, Pakistan, North Korea etc., followed these developed nations in building their own nuclear arsenals.
So the only realistic idea for the 21st century is the prevention of first-use of nuclear weapons.
Global no-first use can co-exist with, even reinforce, the movement towards disarmament.
Thus, getting the world’s powers to commit to no-first use, followed by reducing their nuclear arsenalbuild up are the initial steps.

What is the role of India in this regard?

India recently announced that its Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear Submarine (SSBN), the INS Arihant, had completed its first deterrent patrol.
This moves the nation a step closer to actualising the nuclear ‘triad’ i.e is a three-pronged military force structure that consists of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-missile-armed submarines and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles.
However, the completion of the triad calls for a profound review of India’s policy on nuclear weapons.
India must shift focus from negotiating our way through international nuclear weapons control regimes, to shaping a world where these weapons of mass destructions are not used.
India must go from the defensive to the assertive strategy, wherein India must champion a global no-first use (GNFU) treaty.
The nuclear powers of the West, including Russia, are wedded to their longstanding doctrines and processes.
They pretend that non-proliferation works only by imposing sanctions on countries trying to make their own bombs, and they make deals with those who succeed in this endeavour.
This is because the nuclear powers are simultaneously improving their own arsenals.
This shows that the risks of an accidental nuclear war are mounting.
On the other hand, countries like China prefer GNFU and has had a no-first use doctrine for quite a while, and is likely to want to maintain that line.
Thus, there is scope here for India and China to collaborate at the level of international security.

Source: Business standard