A 21st-century Role for Nuclear Weapons

摘要

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has become a metaphor for 21st-century security concerns. Although nuclear weapons have not been used since the end of World War Ⅱ, their influence on international security affairs is pervasive, and possession of WMD remains an important divide in international politics today. Although the West had doubts about the military usefulness of nuclear weapons during the Cold War, archival evidence confirms that the Soviet Union would have used nuclear weapons from the outset had war broken out in Europe. Ironically, this has tended to support the view that the West's nuclear posture over 40 years of rivalry with the Soviet Union actually had a stabilizing effect. This in turn may provide some explanation of the motives for the proliferation of WMD in the 21st century―a position that is bolstered by the futility of investment in conventional defense in light of advances in the military application of information technology in the United States and its principal allies.