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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, December 02, 2007

The US wargames Pakistan's nukes

Not really a surprise, but....
A small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal if the country's political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart.....

The conclusion of last year's game, said one participant, was that there are no palatable ways to forcibly ensure the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons -- and that even studying scenarios for intervention could worsen the risks by undermining U.S.-Pakistani cooperation.....

An expert on Pakistani terrorism who did not attend last year's war game but learned about some of its conclusions said that senior U.S. officials "weren't pleased with what the game told them; they were quite shocked."

The solution they arrived at appears to be to support Pakistan's military no matter what.

(I'd be curious how the Indians view the same problem.)