Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance

Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance PDF Author: Richard K. Betts
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815717083
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
In numerous crises after World War II—Berlin, Korea, the Taiwan Straits, and the Middle East—the United States resorted to vague threats to use nuclear weapons in order to deter Soviet or Chinese military action. On a few occasions the Soviet Union also engaged in nuclear saber-ratling. Using declassified documents and other sources, this volume examines those crises and compares the decisionmaking processes of leaders who considered nuclear threats with the commonly accepted logic of nuclear deterrence and coercion. Rejecting standard explanations of our leader's logic in these cases, Betts suggests that U.S. presidents were neither consciously blufffing when they made nuclear threats, nor prepared to face the consequences if their threats failed. The author also challenges the myth that the 1950s was a golden age of low vulberability for the United Stateas and details how nuclear parity has, and has not, altered conditions that gave rise to nuclear blackmail in the past.

The Nuclear "balance" in Europe

The Nuclear Author: Donald R. Cotter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description


Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance

Nuclear Blackmail and Nuclear Balance PDF Author: Richard K. Betts
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815717083
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Get Book

Book Description
In numerous crises after World War II—Berlin, Korea, the Taiwan Straits, and the Middle East—the United States resorted to vague threats to use nuclear weapons in order to deter Soviet or Chinese military action. On a few occasions the Soviet Union also engaged in nuclear saber-ratling. Using declassified documents and other sources, this volume examines those crises and compares the decisionmaking processes of leaders who considered nuclear threats with the commonly accepted logic of nuclear deterrence and coercion. Rejecting standard explanations of our leader's logic in these cases, Betts suggests that U.S. presidents were neither consciously blufffing when they made nuclear threats, nor prepared to face the consequences if their threats failed. The author also challenges the myth that the 1950s was a golden age of low vulberability for the United Stateas and details how nuclear parity has, and has not, altered conditions that gave rise to nuclear blackmail in the past.

The Nuclear Confrontation in Europe

The Nuclear Confrontation in Europe PDF Author: Jeffrey H. Boutwell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000199584
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
Originally published in 1985, this book explores the nuclear confrontation between East and West in Europe: where we stand, how we got there and what the future may hold. Its concluding chapter outlines the prospects for nuclear arms control in Europe, and it frames the debate over NATO strategy and the role of nuclear weapons in the years ahead. Can NATO reduce its reliance on nuclear weapons? Can it cope with the issues at all? The chapters on NATO theatre nuclear forces and doctrine provide a rich background to current policy issues. The public debate over NATO’s 1979 decision to deploy new American cruise and Pershing nuclear missiles in Europe was hardly unprecedented in NATO’s history: similar controversy surrounded NATO deliberations in the late 1950s and early 1960s. That debate, however, subsided in the mid-1960s; the nuclear question in Europe was relegated to the ‘wilderness’, though efforts – largely unavailing – continued within official circles to define more clearly the role of nuclear weapons in NATO’s defense. Against this backdrop, the nuclear debate emerged again in the 1970s. This title unravels the military and political considerations at play in that debate and maps the European politics surrounding it. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Second Interim Report on Nuclear Weapons in Europe

Second Interim Report on Nuclear Weapons in Europe PDF Author: North Atlantic Assembly. Special Committee on Nuclear Weapons in Europe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Conventional Balance in Europe

Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Conventional Balance in Europe PDF Author: Timothy E. Wirth
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Balance of power
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Post-deployment Nuclear Arms Control in Europe

Post-deployment Nuclear Arms Control in Europe PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arms control
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Nuclear Weapons, the Balance of Terror, the Quest for Peace

Nuclear Weapons, the Balance of Terror, the Quest for Peace PDF Author: A J Cwards
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349081310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Tactical Nuclear Weapons PDF Author: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000200396
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
In the 1970s tactical nuclear warfare was a topical issue. The introduction of the new generation of tactical nuclear weapons into Europe could have had disastrous consequences. These new weapons had already been developed by nuclear-weapon laboratories and pressures were growing for their deployment. On first sight, smaller and more accurate nuclear weapons may seem more humane and militarily preferable to the relatively high-yield tactical nuclear weapons currently deployed. But some of these new types of weapons would blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional weapons and their use would make escalation to strategic nuclear war extremely likely. Indeed, the argument for these new weapons is that their use in wartime is more credible (and therefore ‘acceptable’) than current types of tactical nuclear weapons. This perception could easily lead to the exceedingly dangerous idea that some types of tactical nuclear war were ‘winnable’. The fact has to be faced that any use of nuclear weapons is almost certain to escalate until all available weapons are used. To believe otherwise is to believe that one side will surrender before it has used all the weapons in its arsenal. History shows that this is most unlikely to happen. Because of its importance, SIPRI organized a meeting to discuss the whole question. Originally published in 1978, this book is the outcome of that meeting.

European Security, Nuclear Weapons and Public Confidence

European Security, Nuclear Weapons and Public Confidence PDF Author: William Gutteridge
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349059080
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description


History and Strategy

History and Strategy PDF Author: Marc Trachtenberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069121798X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
This work is a powerful demonstration of how historical analysis can be brought to bear on the study of strategic issues, and, conversely, how strategic thinking can help drive historical research. Based largely on newly released American archives, History and Strategy focuses on the twenty years following World War II. By bridging the sizable gap between the intellectual world of historians and that of strategists and political scientists, the essays here present a fresh and unified view of how to explore international politics in the nuclear era. The book begins with an overview of strategic thought in America from 1952 through 1966 and ends with a discussion of "making sense" of the nuclear age. Trachtenberg reevaluates the immediate causes of World War I, studies the impact of the shifting nuclear balance on American strategy in the early 1950s, examines the relationship between the nuclearization of NATO and U.S.-West European relations, and looks at the Berlin and the Cuban crises. He shows throughout that there are startling discoveries to be made about events that seem to have been thoroughly investigated.