Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World / Edition 1

by Michael J. Mazarr

Overview

Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World sets out to examine one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century: the future of nuclear weapons. Acknowledging the growing consensus that pushing nuclear weapons to the margins of world politics would represent the wisest political and moral choice for the United States, a stellar group of scholars has been assembled in this volume to analyze one solution to the problem: virtual nuclear arsenals. First proposed by Jonathan Schell in his 1984 book The Abolition , this option involves removing all nuclear weapons from operational status and placing them in a dismantled, 'virtual' condition. Essays by many of the world's top experts on arms control and international relations combine to offer the first detailed assessment of what may be the most promising and provocative idea in the field today. Thorough, balanced, and probing, Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World opens the debate on a concept which could possibly determine the future of arms control and US policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312162023
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	12/15/1997
Edition description:	1997
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.04(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword - Introduction - PART 1: THE NOTION OF VIRTUAL ARSENALS; M.Mazarr - PART 2: ELEMENTS OF VIRTUAL DETERRENCE - Nuclear Doctrine; M.Brown - Command, Control, and Warning; B.Blair - Force Structure and Nuclear Infrastructure; P.Wilson - Verification and Monitoring; D.Kay - Reconstitution and Reassembly; M.Wheeler - Strategic Defenses; K.Payne - PART 3: CASE STUDIES - Established Nuclear Weapons States; M.Mazarr - Case Study: Russia; K.Sorokin - Case Study: China; T.Kim - Case Study: France; P.Gordon - Case Study: Britain; S.Croft - Threshold Weapons States; D.Hagerty - Virtual and Non-Nuclear Weapons States; B.Roberts - PART 4: REACTIONS - Reducing the Nuclear Danger; C.Horner - Virtual Arsenals: A French View; F.Heisbourg - Thoughts on Virtual Nuclear Arsenals; K.Waltz - Virtual Arsenals: A Russian View; A.Arbatov - Further on Reconstitution Issues; P.Garrity - Virtual Arsenals: A Japanese View; A.Watanabe - Virtual Visions: Past and Future; P.Zelikow - PART 5: VIRTUAL NUCLEAR ARSENALS: A SECOND LOOK; M.Mazarr

Editorial Reviews

This is an ambitious and imaginative look at one of the most urgent and yet complicated issues todaythe future of nuclear weapons and their role in international politics of the 21st century. Mazarr, editor of the Washington Quarterly and director of the New Millennium Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, has assembled a group of scholars and other policy experts to ponder the future role of nuclear weapons. Notwithstanding their diverse backgrounds, the contributors address how nuclear weapons can be rendered less effective as a politico-military tool by placing them in "virtual" condition: removing nuclear weapons from operational status and placing them in a dismantled (virtual) condition. The positions of the current nuclear powers as well as the emerging ones are analyzed in detail. Recommended for academic libraries and those interested in the future of arms control and nuclear weapons.Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, Ala.

Library Journal

Riding on the growing consensus that is pushing nuclear weapons to the margins of world politics, scholars of arms control and international relations analyze one possible approach, called virtual nuclear arsenals. It involves removing all nuclear weapons from operational status and placing them in a dismantled virtual condition. They explain the mechanisms, present case studies, review reactions, and insist it is not a covert arming against the Internet. The CiP data shows no subtitle. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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