Going Nuclear: Nuclear Proliferation and International Security in the 21st Century

Summary

The spread of nuclear weapons is one of the most significant challenges to global security in the twenty-first century. Limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials may be the key to preventing a nuclear war or a catastrophic act of nuclear terrorism. Going Nuclear offers conceptual, historical, and analytical perspectives on current problems in controlling nuclear proliferation. It includes essays that examine why countries seek nuclear weapons as well as studies of the nuclear programs of India, Pakistan, and South Africa. The final section of the book offers recommendations for responding to the major contemporary proliferation challenges: keeping nuclear weapons and materials out of the hands of terrorists, ensuring that countries that renounce nuclear weapons never change their minds, and cracking down on networks that illicitly spread nuclear technologies.

Nearly all the chapters in this book have been previously published in the journal International Security. It contains a new preface and one chapter commissioned specifically for the volume, Matthew Bunn's "Nuclear Terrorism: A Strategy for Prevention."

Contributors: Samina Ahmed, Deborah Yarsike Ball, Chaim Braun, Matthew Bunn, Stephen F. Burgess, Christopher F. Chyba, Steve Fetter, Šumit Ganguly, Theodore P. Gerber, Charles L. Glaser, Rodney Jones, Ariel E. Levite, Peter Liberman, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Alexander H. Montgomery, Helen E. Purkitt, Scott D. Sagan, Etel Solingen, Anthony Wier

About the Editors

Michael E. Brown is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University.

Owen R. Coté Jr. is Associate Director of the Security Studies Program at MIT.

Sean M. Lynn-Jones is a Belfer Center researcher at Harvard University and Editor of International Security, the International Security Program's quarterly journal.

Steven E. Miller is Editor-in-chief of International Security and Director of the International Security Program of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

"Nuclear proliferation continues to be among the greatest dangers facing the United States and global security. The articles in Going Nuclear address the key questions in the ongoing debate over the causes and consequences of nuclear proliferation, with special attention to the critical case of South Asia. This excellent collection of articles will be valuable for undergraduate and graduate courses in international security; experts as well as students will find great value in this book."
—Charles L. Glaser, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs in the Elliott School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science at the George Washington University, author of Theory of Rational International Politics: The Logic of Competition and Cooperation

"Some of the best articles on one of the most important topics today. Will be very useful for courses."
—Joseph S. Nye Jr., Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University, author of The Powers to Lead