The Game of Accommodation

: Explaining the Behaviour of China, India and Pakistan in the Institutions of the Global Nuclear Order

Crynodeb

This thesis examines the behaviour of China, India, and Pakistan within the institutions of the global nuclear order, posing the central research question: What role does accommodation play in shaping the behaviour of these three states in the nuclear order? In this bottom-up approach, I move away from the narrative of the great powers who have granted or rejected accommodation by shifting the frame of reference to the rising nuclear powers who have historically made these accommodation demands to examine what is it that these states have pursued in the nuclear order, to what extent has this pursuit been successful, and how has it shaped their behaviour.

In response to the central research question, I argue that the three states have used the process of accommodation instrumentally to advance their specific interests and claims within the nuclear order. I also argue that the regional security dynamics shared by these states have played a key role in shaping some key accommodation ‘demands.’ Examination of these demands helps us explain the varying patterns of cooperation and resistance exhibited by these three rising, regional nuclear powers.

This research has important implications and contributes significantly to understanding the stakes of rising nuclear powers in an order that has often excluded them, and one that is rapidly changing in light of shifting power balances. This research also contributes to the literature on the respective nuclear histories of China, India and Pakistan in a first-of-its-kind systematic mapping of each states’ specific interests and demands that unpacks their behaviour in the global nuclear order. Lastly, this thesis offers an original conceptual category of ‘accommodation’ and ‘demands’ to broaden and deepen our understanding of the global nuclear order and the international society in how it interacts with these demands and how this interaction, in turn, changes the order.

Dyddiad Dyfarnu	2025
Iaith wreiddiol	Saesneg
Sefydliad Dyfarnu	Prifysgol Aberystwyth
Goruchwyliwr	Jan Růžička (Goruchwylydd) & Jenny Mathers (Goruchwylydd)