Product Description

Soon after nuclear weapons devastated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Bernard Brodie and several colleagues wrote The Absolute Weapon, which predicted that the atomic bomb would revolutionize international politics. In TheAbsolute Weapon Revisited, a group of noted scholars explores the contemporary role of nuclear weapons in the world after the end of the Cold War. Although superpower rivalry has faded, the complexities of living with nuclear weapons remain.
Working from different theoretical perspectives, the contributors offer a set of provocative assessments of nuclear deterrence and the risks of nuclear proliferation and disarmament. Some argue that assured destruction capabilities remain important, while others argue that nuclear deterrence will be increasingly irrelevant. Arms control, crisis stability, and continuity and change in nuclear doctrine as well as new issues such as virtual nuclear states and information warfare, are some of the issues addressed by the contributors to The Absolute Weapon Revisited. The contributors are Zachary Davis, Colin S. Gray, Richard J. Harknett, Ashok Kapur, Robert Manning, William C. Martel, Eric Mlyn, John Mueller, J. V. Paul, George Quester, and James J. Wirtz.
This book will be of interest to scholars, policymakers and students interested in issues of nuclear strategy and deterrence, arms control, nonproliferation and disarmament, international security and peace studies.
T. V. Paul is Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University, and the author of AsymmetricConflicts: War Initiation by Weaker Powers. James J. Wirtz is Associate Professor of Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, and the author of The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure at War. Richard Harknett is Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Cincinnati, and the author of numerous articles on security affairs.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2946583 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

Review
"A commendable contribution to the literature on the nuclear arms race, and is recommended for those interested in proliferation issues and international relations." -- Millennium, vol. 28 -1, 1999

"A major contribution to the ongoing debate on whether the acquisition of non-conventional weapons is more or less conducive to the outbreak of war." -- American Political Science Review, September 1999

"One of the most stimulating collection of writings on nuclear affairs published in recent times and can be recommended to students." -- International Affairs, July 1999

"Strongly recommended for libraries and collections specializing in international security, war and peace studies, military and defense issues, and arms control." -- Choice, October 1998

Customer Reviews

An extraordinary collection
This book should be on the desk of every policymaker ! As a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church I would also hope that deacons, animators of justice and peace in the local Church, would read and ponder this difficult and complex problem. After 20 years of my own study of the problem of war and peace in the nuclear age, with the end of the Cold War, there seemed to have emerged more questions than answers for myself and others.

This collection of essays gives the reader insight into the multilayered complexity of what to do with nuclear weapons, how useful are they, and what can we do to get rid of them in the future. I was impressed by the depth of the essays from each of the contributors, even when I disagreed with some of the assumptions or conclusions. This book forces one to wrestle with the unfinished agenda of human survival and thrival. As a Christian theologian, the ethical argument opposing nuclear weapons forces one to grapple with the complexity of this issue as an act of love. It is a struggle directed to understanding this seemingly unsolvable problem and the possibilities for living in a more just and peaceful world. This cannot be accomplished without knowing something of the world and problem of nuclear weapons. This book offers a superb overview of this most important and vexing dilemma at this time in human history. We cannot hope to secure some level of peace and justice without study and discussion of the emerging constellation of problems and developments surrounding this issue. This book helps us to understand.