Deepak Dalal PSIR

PSIR daily current affairs and answer writing 11th December

daily answer writing, PSIR daily current affairs
Deepak Dalal

PSIR daily current affairs and answer writing 11th December

PSIR daily current affairs and answer writing 11th December 2025

Editorial : Restraint has a half life (Nuclear policy) Amitabh Mattoo -IE- 3rd November

Discussion video:

Context of the editorial or news:

  • Donald Trump announced that the US would consider resuming nuclear testing

Objectives of article or editorial

  • India should reconsider its nuclear restraint in evolving global nuclear order.

What is the theoretical explanation for achieving that objective?

Pragmatic realist 

PYQs linkage:

  1. Critically analyse India’s nuclear policy. 10(2016)
  2. Given the recent developments in the region, do you think that there is a need to change India’s ‘No First Use (NFU)’ nuclear policy. 15(2019)
  3. Discuss the efficacy of India’s ‘no first use’ policy in the context of the evolving strategic challenges from its neighbours. 15(2020)
  4. Examine the evolution of India’s role in the global nuclear order. 15 (2021)
  5. “India’s Nuclear policy is deeply influenced by its cultural beliefs and the pragmatic approach of its foreign policy.” Discuss. 20 (2023)

Theory application: Realist approach,

 

Concepts and keywords:

voluntary global moratorium on nuclear testing, strategic maturity, diplomatic legitimacy, credible minimum deterrence, No First use, Global nuclear order, moral and diplomatic capital, responsible nuclear power, evolving balance of power,

 

 

Important facts:

  • India’s voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing since 1998

 

important quotes or statements:

“In nuclear strategy, perception is as crucial as capability; credibility must be seen to be believed.”

“Strategic autonomy demands flexibility, not fixation.”

“If the world is returning to an age of verification through detonation, India must ensure that its deterrent remains not only moral but credible.”

 Prof. Amitav Mattoo former member NSAB.

 

  • Brief analysis and key points from the news or editorial:

Features of India’s nuclear policy:

  • Credible minimum deterrence
  • No first use
  • Voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing since 1998

Significance of India’s nuclear policy:

  • It balanced responsibility with readiness and underscored India’s image as a restrained power.
  • Nuclear programme guided by discipline rather than defiance
  • Strategy maturity and moral confidence
  • It opened the way for diplomatic legitimacy, the end of sanctions, and the civil nuclear cooperation agreements.

 

Developments in current global nuclear order (evolving balance of power):

  • The US questions reliability of computer simulations, signalling readiness to test again, designing new warhead classes
  • Russia revived its activity in its Arctic test sites, has withdrawn from key arms control regimes.
  • China is expanding its nuclear stockpile at an unprecedented rate and constructing new missile silos
  • Pakistan is diversifying into tactical and sea-based systems.

Challenge faced by India in this new evolving Global nuclear order:

  • Nuclear restraint (self-imposed moratorium), if left unexamined, can harden into inertia.
  • If India clings indefinitely to unilateral restraint, it risks being left outside the framework that will define the next era of arms control.
  • Credibility is not a permanent condition. Deterrence depends not only on the existence of weapons but on confidence in their performance.
  • India’s nuclear weapons built on designs validated in 1998, since then, technology, materials and delivery systems have evolved.
  • Limitation of computer modelling and subcritical tests (expansion of existing knowledge but lacks empirical data)
  • With Fewer validated data points, the uncertainty is greater.
  • To maintain readiness while sustaining restraint, to keep the options of testing alive without being the one to reopen the nuclear gates.
  • Whether to remain a passive observer or to shape the contours of the emerging order. To stand still in a moving world is not prudence; it is paralysis.

What needs to be done:

  • Scientific, limited and responsible testing (not reckless)
  • Carefully designed series of underground tests, intended for validation rather than demonstration

 

Why these actions are necessary:

  • If the world is returning to an age of verification through detonation, India must require re-examination.
  • It could provide assurance about the reliability of new-generation designs.
  • It would communicate to advertisers that India’s deterrent remains modern and credible.

 

 

Way forward:

  • For developing response in evolving nuclear order, we need an open, informed national debate that treats deterrence as a living equation of technology, psychology and politics.
  • India must reevaluate its position, not to be first to test again, but to ensure it is not the last to adopt.
  • India must guard the moral and diplomatic capital that its restraint has earned.
  • The purpose of nuclear testing should be knowledge and preparedness (not escalation and provocation)

 

download the document: PSIR daily current affairs USA hegemony December 10th 2025

 

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