Weapons of Mass Destruction

Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century Security Environment

The apparent anti-proliferation approach of the George W. Bush Administration to nuclear and other Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) seems to coincide with the perspective of Scott Sagan in The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate, as opposed to the deterrence perspective of his co-author, Kenneth Waltz. Security for major nations is currently under greater threat by the destabilizing effects of terrorism than it is by annihilation through conventional warfare. The Cold-War approach of deterrence is not adequate against enemies who are more concerned with their philosophical endurance than their physical survival. The modern landscape of nuclear arms reduction by major world powers, while many quasi-minor countries scramble to attain nuclear status explicitly underscores the delicate problem of securing safety while upholding widely accepted tenets of Just War Theory.

The Spread of Nuclear Weapons is the work of...
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