Arms for Uncertainty: Nuclear Weapons in US and Russian Security Policy

摘要

Discussions of national security policy in recent years have tended to focus on the threat of terrorism, the legacy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the consequences of growing Chinese economic and military strength. To the extent that nuclear weapons have entered those discussions, the focus has been on convincing North Korea to abandon its small arsenal or preventing Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability. Stephen Cimbala, in Arms for Uncertainty: Nuclear Weapons in US and Russian Security Policy, argues that the many thousands of nuclear weapons still in the arsenals of the United States and Russia (and in lesser numbers, in the arsenals of Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, and Israel) also deserve sustained attention. Given the enormous destructive power embodied in those weapons, Cimbala suggests that the strategies pursued by the current nuclear powers will continue to shape the international system in powerful ways.