The evolution of disarmament and arms control thought, 1945-1963
The onset of the Cold War and the total failure of nuclear disarmament efforts at the United Nations were only the most obvious of several factors prompting a reexamination of the disarmament approach in the early 1950s. The end of the American nuclear monopoly, the development of the hydrogen bomb, the experience with limited war in Korea, and the rise of concerns about the possibility of nuclear surprise attack (exacerbated by Sputnik) all prompted the Eisenhower administration and the community of strategic thinkers to question the feasibility and even the desirability of nuclear disarmament. To replace disarmament, the strategic community developed the arms-control approach; this approach, the intellectual foundations of which were largely completed in 1961, has been the basis of American policy for the regulation of nuclear weapons since the Kennedy administration. Since its development, the new thinking has been challenged both by disarmers, who regard it as a conservative approach designed merely to perpetuate mutual nuclear deterrence, and traditionalists, who perceive many similarities to the disarmament approach and are skeptical of its faith in the ability of adversaries to act together to reduce the threat that weapons pose.
- Research Organization:
- Virginia Univ., Charlottesville, VA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5251884
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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