Synopses & Reviews
How will continued proliferation of nuclear weapons change the global political order? This collection of essays comes to conclusions at odds with the conventional wisdom. Stephen Rosen and Barry Posen explore how nuclear proliferation may affect US incentives to confront regional aggression. Stephen Walt argues that regional allies will likely prove willing to stand with a strong and ready United States against nuclear-backed aggression. George Quester and Brad Roberts examine long-term strategic objectives in responding to nuclear attack by a regional aggressor. Richard Betts highlights the potential for disastrous mistakes in moving toward and living in a world heavily populated with nuclear-armed states. Scott Sagan explains how the nuclear nonproliferation policies best suited to some states can spur proliferation by others. Caroline Ziemke shows how the analysis of a state's strategic personality can provide insights into why it might want nuclear weapons and how its policies may develop once it gets them. And, Victor Utgoff concludes that the United States seems more likely to intervene against regional aggression when the aggressor has nuclear weapons than when it does not.
Synopsis
How will continued proliferation of nuclear weapons change the global political order?
About the Author
Victor A. Utgoff is Deputy Director of the Strategy, Forces, and Resources Division of the Institute for Defense Analyses.
Table of Contents
The specter of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons proliferation / Victor A. Utgoff -- Rethinking the causes of nuclear proliferation: three models in search of a bomb / Scott D. Sagan -- Universal deterrance or conceptual collapse? Liberal pessimism and utopian realism / Richard K. Betts -- The national myth and strategic personality of Iran: a counterproliferation perspective / Caroline F. Ziemke -- Nuclear proliferation and alliance relations / Stephen Peter Rosen -- U.S. security policy in a nuclear-armed world, or What if Iraq had nuclear weapons? / Barry R. Posen -- Containing rogues and renegades: coalition strategies and counterproliferation / Stephen M. Walt -- The response to renegade use of weapons of mass destruction / George H. Quester -- Rethinking how wars must end: NBC war termination issues in the post-Cold War era / Brad Roberts -- The coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, U.S. interests, and world order: a combined perspective / Victor A. Utgoff.