Strategic nuclear forces of Britain and France
Weapon inventories of the US and the USSR account for about 97% of the nuclear warheads in the world today; Britain and France have most of the remainder. Yet even the comparatively modest claims the two Western European nations can make in this regard represent an awesome military capability that the USSR (and, to a lesser extent, the US) cannot afford to ignore. Indeed, the recent proposals both superpowers have made to dismantle all their European-based intermediate-range missiles differ sharply in particulars but raise the same fundamental question: What role will the other nuclear forces in Europe have in the future military balance. The Europeans are unlikely to place their limited strategic forces on the bargaining table along with those of the USSR and the US unless the superpowers impose severe constraints on their own strategic-weapon programs, and in particular on their strategic-defense programs. The deployment of such defense systems poses a worrisome dilemma for the Europeans: while in the near term a Soviet anti-ballistic-missile (ABM) system might have only marginal military impact, over the longer term a novel, exotic defense could conceivably nullify the dependent deterrent Britain and France have so arduously sought. At the same time and American system such as the Strategic Defense Initiative could, by decoupling the defense of Europe from that of the US, increase the need for precisely such an independent deterrent in the minds of the British and the French.
- OSTI ID:
- 6664753
- Journal Information:
- Sci. Am.; (United States), Vol. 255:2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
FRANCE
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
ARMS CONTROL
UNITED KINGDOM
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
SALT TALKS
TREATIES
USA
USSR
ASIA
EASTERN EUROPE
EUROPE
NATIONAL DEFENSE
NORTH AMERICA
WEAPONS
WESTERN EUROPE
350100* - Arms Control- Policy
Negotiations
& Legislation- (1987-)
290600 - Energy Planning & Policy- Nuclear Energy