Heading Off the World's First Nuclear War

Seventeen million people could be killed or injured in just a few weeks if India and Pakistan engage in an all-out nuclear war, according to the Pentagon.

Tensions between the two nuclear powers have reached an all-time high. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will visit both nations next week to try to improve relations, and the State Department is recalling all non-essential personnel from its Embassy in India.

This hour, a look at the potential for conflict over Kashmir. Would India or Pakistan hit the nuclear button? What would happen if they did?

Guests:

Jim Walsh, political scientist and Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government

Ira Helfand, emergency physician in Northampton, MA, Past President and Board, "International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War"

Stephen Schwartz, publisher of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Dinshaw Mistry, research fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government