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This slim little volume is a study of the psychology and reality of India's and Pakistan's nuclear policies, and it is scary indeed. Ghosh begins by describing the nuclear test by India in 1999, conducted aboveground in total disregard for the safety of the people in surrounding areas. Amazingly, celebrations in the streets of towns and cities followed. Ghosh says that for these two countries the weapons are a status symbol allowing them to take a place at the table of "world powers." As he traveled and interviewed people on the subject, he found their views of the tests a mixture of fantasy and niavete. He feels India has made a tragic error in its struggle with its historical enemy--relying on nuclear weapons, India has given up its historical advantage of superior conventional forces, leaving it to defend itself with a weapon that will only invite a horrible counter-attack. Ghosh ends with a minute analysis of the aftereffects of an attack on New Delhi. Interestingly, the immediate death toll, he says, would only (only!) be in the 200,000 range, but the destruction of the infrastructure, the loss of records, and most of all the suffering of those unlucky enough to survive, would precipitate a horrible national collapse. One can only ask "Why?"