Nuclear weapons in the changing world: Perspectives from Europe, Asia, and North America
- eds.
For almost a half-century it has not been possible to think about the future of nuclear weapons without also thinking about the Cold War. Since the late 1940s, the United States and the Soviet Union have pursued their international rivalry with the spector of nuclear war always present. Over time nuclear weapons established mutual deterrence between the two superpowers and gave the smaller nuclear powers - the United Kingdom, France, and China - a credible, independent deterrent. In a bipolar world, nuclear weapons indeed appeared to provide stability. Now, with the end of the Cold War and the changing relationship between the United States and the former Soviet Union, how will we think about nuclear weapons? Will their traditional role change as dramatically as has the international security environment? Examining these questions is an appropriate activity for the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Laboratory`s primary mission is to apply its scientific and engineering capabilities to ensure the nation`s deterrent through nuclear-weapons technology. The requirements to which the Laboratory`s scientific and technical base will be asked to respond in the future will derive in large part from US national security policy and the national and international political forces that shape the policy. The internationally recognized contributors to this book represent a variety of points of view. They were asked to present their ideas about the future of nuclear weapons in light of specific regional developments and the enormous changes that we have recently witnessed in international relations - the end of the Warsaw Pact, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the beginning of democratic governments in the former communist states of Eastern Europe, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
- OSTI ID:
- 105166
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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