Long before Machiavelli, the Indian strategist Kautilya articulated a blunt theory of power in the Arthashastra. Writing in the fourth century BCE, he rejected the idea that moral restraint governs state behaviour. Power, he argued, dictates norms; ethics follow advantage. Rulers, in his view, often preach moderation not because they practice it, but because they want rivals to do so.

Kautilya's realism feels uncomfortably contemporary in today's nuclear order. The NPT is based on a moral concession; non-nuclear states give a promise not to develop weapons, whereas nuclear states promise to disarmament in the future. However, decades later, disarmament is still mostly a mere rhetoric. The nuclear-armed nations update their arsenals, increase their delivery networks and polish their doctrines, yet they insist that the others permanently disarm, even as the United States and its allies are heavily investing in the nuclear modernisation programs and selectively accommodating........

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