Dilemmas of Nuclear Strategy

Nuclear strategy and deterrence in their golden age a nostalgically definedperiod sometime in the mid1950s to mid1960s promised to harness and controlthe nucle... » 

Nuclear strategy and deterrence in their golden age a nostalgically definedperiod sometime in the mid1950s to mid1960s promised to harness and controlthe nuclear Moloch hopes were high that the civilian strategists flooding intoWashington would succeed in designing a new science of war that would safeguardnational security provide a stable international environment and develop arational decisionmaking process for the management of national interests in ahostile nuclear world. Three decades later it is a commonplace that theerstwhile promises and pretensions of the nuclear whiz kids and the wizardsof Armageddon have not lived up to expectations.Arms control has not curbed or slowed down the vast arms buildups crisismanagement has shown itself to be an imperfect and fallible policy instrumentand the centrepiece of this nuclear strategic science the doctrine of mutualassured destruction is under assault from all quarters. Critics maintain thatwhile the political and technological context of international politics andstrategic relations has changed profoundly our thinking about war and itsprevention remains rooted in the past ossified around a deterrence paradigm ofover two decades ago.It was with this in mind that the editor of this volume invited a group ofdistinguished American and European scholars and specialists in strategic andinternational studies to a conference in December 1985 at Villa Serbelloni inBellagio Italy and asked them to consider the following questions what isthe historical validity theoretical vitality and policy relevance of nucleardeterrence theories and doctrines? In what ways have technological andpolicychanges in recent decades affected the original concepts of nuclear warand deterrence strategy? Are there alternate ways for thinking about strategyin the contemporary nuclear context that might be more useful?This volume reflects the research and discussions for the Bel «