Abstract
Confronting the Bomb: Pakistani and Indian Scientists Speak Out edited by physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy is a collection of seventeen essays on Pakistani and Indian nuclear programs. Six have been contributed by Dr. Pervez Hoodbhoy; two by Zia Mian and remaining have been co-authored by different contributors, with a prologue by John Polyanic. It offers a different view point from that commonly held views among the Pakistani and Indian public. Perhaps, nuclear physicists want to compel the reader to consider the actual realities of going nuclear and challenge the reasons used to justify the making of nuclear weapons.
The book deals with the political, historical and ethical aspects of the nuclear weapons in South Asia, dangers of the nuclear arms race and prospects of nuclear confrontation in the region. In the prologue to the book, Nobel Laureate John Polyanic, strikes the unequivocal note that nuclear bombs are a man-made plague on earth, which is the underlying theme of all the essays in the book. Hoodbhoy in his introduction describes how Pakistan acquired the nuclear capability for deterrence but continues to cash it for influence in international community and achieving strategic goals.