Nuclear Weapons: A Piece of the Peace

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War there has been considerable intellectual confusion over nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence. This is due to a number of reasons, a central one being the tendency of many scholars, public policy figures, and peace activists like global nuclear zero advocates to associate these weapons with the Cold War. The dissolution of the Soviet Empire in 1989, and with it the end of the Cold War, gave new impetus and seeming credibility to anti-nuclear movements around the world. However, we should not forget that it was an interesting historical coincidence that the Cold War and the nuclear age emerged at roughly the same time. So when the Cold War ended, it only seemed logical to many that the nuclear age, too, had ended. And so, the USA no longer needed to “rely” on these weapons for its security, and that of its allies.