How an India-Pakistan nuclear war could start-and have global consequences

Alan Robock; Owen B. Toon; Charles G. Bardeen; Lili Xia; Hans M. Kristensen; Matthew McKinzie; R. J. Peterson; Cheryl S. Harrison; Nicole S. Lovenduski; Richard P. Turco

doi:10.1080/00963402.2019.1680049

How an India-Pakistan nuclear war could start-and have global consequences

Alan Robock, Owen B. Toon, Charles G. Bardeen, Lili Xia, Hans M. Kristensen, Matthew McKinzie, R. J. Peterson, Cheryl S. Harrison, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Richard P. Turco

Theoretical high energy, astroparticle and gravitational physics

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article describes how an India-Pakistan nuclear war might come to pass, and what the local and global effects of such a war might be. The direct effects of this nuclear exchange would be horrible; the authors estimate that 50 to 125 million people would die, depending on whether the weapons used had yields of 15, 50, or 100 kilotons. The ramifications for Indian and Pakistani society would be major and long lasting, with many major cities largely destroyed and uninhabitable, millions of injured people needing care, and power, transportation, and financial infrastructure in ruins. But the climatic effects of the smoke produced by an India-Pakistan nuclear war would not be confined to the subcontinent, or even to Asia. Those effects would be enormous and global in scope.

Original language	English
Journal	Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Volume	75
Issue number	6, SI
Pages (from-to)	273-279
ISSN	0096-3402
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2019.1680049
Publication status	Published - 2 Nov 2019

Keywords

Nuclear war
South Asia
Kashmir
cold start
tactical nuclear weapons
nuclear winter

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title = "How an India-Pakistan nuclear war could start-and have global consequences",

abstract = "This article describes how an India-Pakistan nuclear war might come to pass, and what the local and global effects of such a war might be. The direct effects of this nuclear exchange would be horrible; the authors estimate that 50 to 125 million people would die, depending on whether the weapons used had yields of 15, 50, or 100 kilotons. The ramifications for Indian and Pakistani society would be major and long lasting, with many major cities largely destroyed and uninhabitable, millions of injured people needing care, and power, transportation, and financial infrastructure in ruins. But the climatic effects of the smoke produced by an India-Pakistan nuclear war would not be confined to the subcontinent, or even to Asia. Those effects would be enormous and global in scope.",

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AU - McKinzie, Matthew

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AB - This article describes how an India-Pakistan nuclear war might come to pass, and what the local and global effects of such a war might be. The direct effects of this nuclear exchange would be horrible; the authors estimate that 50 to 125 million people would die, depending on whether the weapons used had yields of 15, 50, or 100 kilotons. The ramifications for Indian and Pakistani society would be major and long lasting, with many major cities largely destroyed and uninhabitable, millions of injured people needing care, and power, transportation, and financial infrastructure in ruins. But the climatic effects of the smoke produced by an India-Pakistan nuclear war would not be confined to the subcontinent, or even to Asia. Those effects would be enormous and global in scope.

KW - Nuclear war

KW - South Asia

KW - Kashmir

KW - cold start

KW - tactical nuclear weapons

KW - nuclear winter

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How an India-Pakistan nuclear war could start-and have global consequences

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Keywords

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