The Second Nuclear Age

"Colin Gray returns nuclear weapons to the center stage of international politics."--BOOK JACKET. "Taking issue with the complacent belief that a happy mixture of deterrence, arms control, and luck will enable humanity to cope adequately with weapons of mass destruction (WMD), Gray argues that the risk posed by WMD is ever more serious. Policy that ignores the present nuclear age, he cautions, is policy that ignores reality."--BOOK JACKET. "Gray's iconoclastic analysis, which includes a rigorous examination of the major policy and conceptual issues associated with WMD, criticizes traditional approaches to nonproliferation and assaults as fallacious both the aspiration to "abolish" or "marginalize" nuclear weapons and the idea that there is a "nuclear taboo" in universal operation. The Second Nuclear Age dares to specify the policy merit in nuclear weapons today."--BOOK JACKET. EEn......Page 1 TOC......Page 2 Foreword......Page 3 Preface......Page 5 1. Nuclear Problem, Nuclear Condition......Page 7 2. The Second Nuclear Age: The Hunt for Political Context......Page 17 3. Beyond the Fuel Cycle: Strategy and the Proliferation Puzzle......Page 35 4. To Confuse Ourselves: Nuclear Fallacies......Page 54 5. Nuclear Strategy......Page 75 6. Coping with a Nuclear Future......Page 96 Bibliography......Page 107 The author takes issue with the complacent belief that a happy mixture of deterrence, arms control and luck will enable humanity to cope adequately with weapons of mass destruction, arguing that the risks are ever more serious