Abstract
How we think about nuclear crises is inevitably a product of the cold war and the times when crises and confrontations involved the two nuclear superpowers and their clients. From the strategy and concepts of deterrence to the broader American doctrine of containment after the Second World War, the almost singleminded focus of thinking about nuclear crises centered on the dangers in a US—Soviet conflict. It was only natural that they would gain the most attention because they had by far the largest nuclear arsenals and could have inflicted the greatest havoc if a crisis had escalated into a conflict.
The opinions expressed in this chapter are the author’s alone and do not reflect those of The RAND Corporation or of any agency of the US government.
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Notes
See Jeffrey Richelson, ‘Air Force Tries to Shoot Down Its Own Spy’, Los Angeles Times, 9 April 1989, p. V-3.
See Aaron Karp, ‘The Frantic Third World Quest for Ballistic Missiles’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, June 1988, p. 19.
South Africa agreed in early 1990 to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty, although its value is questionable given South Africa’s reported nuclear weapons capabilities. R. Jeffrey Smith, ‘S. African Nuclear-Arms Work Detailed’, Washington Post, 27 September 1990, p. 16.
See Robert C. Toth, ‘U. S. Worried by Nuclear Security in Unstable Soviet Empire’, Los Angeles Times 15 December 1989, p. S-7.
Bill Keller, ‘US and the Soviets As Allies? It’s the First Time Since 1945’, New York Times, 8 August 1990, p. A8.
Michael Wines, ‘New Strategies to Stem Proliferation of Weapons’, New York Times, 30 September 1990, p. A13.
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© 1992 Joseph E. Nation
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Martel, W.C. (1992). Non-Superpower Nuclear Crisis De-escalation. In: Nation, J.E. (eds) The De-escalation of Nuclear Crises. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12734-4_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12734-4_8
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