Security Without Nuclear Weapons?: Different Perspectives on Non-Nuclear Security (SIPRI Monographs) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198291434 ISBN 13: 9780198291435

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1992

Synopsis

This book examines the question: is the elimination of nuclear weapons feasible? Individual chapters address the major conceptual, technical, and economic issues in the design of a non-nuclear security regime. Other chapters explore more specialized issues as they relate to the feasibility of the elimination of nuclear weapons: élite perceptions and the decision-making process, verification, nuclear proliferation, fissile materials and warheads, alliances and regional hegemonies, and deterrence. The concluding chapter addresses those issues relating to the maintenance of a non-nuclear security regime.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book examines the question: is the elimination of nuclear weapons politically feasible and technically practical? With the end of the cold war, a re-thinking of the nuclear foundations of international security is imperative. There are no compelling reasons to perpetuate a cold war era nuclear security approach. Neither is the world ready to abolish nuclear weapons by agreement. What it is ready for, however, is a radical reappraisal of conventional strategic and disarmament wisdom. The book's explicit focus on non-nuclear security takes issue with prevailing pro- and anti-nuclear views. The study challenges the assumptions of the strategic community that there is no alternative to nuclear security in an anarchic international system, and of the advocates of radical nuclear disarmament who propose solutions at the expense of security. Instead, the contributors argue that nuclear weapons abolition should be seen as a long-term process, pursued on a broad political front, aimed at a steady transformation of international politics that encourages security co-operation between states. Individual chapters of the book address the major conceptual, technical, and economic issues in the design of a non-nuclear security regime. Other chapters explore more specialized issues as they relate to the feasibility of the elimination of nuclear weapons: elite perceptions and the decision-making process, verification, nuclear proliferation, fissile materials and warheads, alliances and regional hegemonies, and deterrence.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0198291434
• ISBN 13: 9780198291435
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312
• Editor: Cowen Karp Regina