Welcome to the InfoSci Platform
Minimizing the Danger of Nuclear Weapons

Minimizing the Danger of Nuclear Weapons

Steven P. Lee
Copyright: © 2018 |Pages: 6
ISBN13: 9781522530329|ISBN10: 1522530320|EISBN13: 9781522530336
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-3032-9.ch004
Cite Chapter Cite Chapter

MLA

Lee, Steven P. "Minimizing the Danger of Nuclear Weapons." Handbook of Research on Examining Global Peacemaking in the Digital Age, edited by Bruce L. Cook, IGI Global, 2018, pp. 45-50. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3032-9.ch004

APA

Lee, S. P. (2018). Minimizing the Danger of Nuclear Weapons. In B. Cook (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Examining Global Peacemaking in the Digital Age (pp. 45-50). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3032-9.ch004

Chicago

Lee, Steven P. "Minimizing the Danger of Nuclear Weapons." In Handbook of Research on Examining Global Peacemaking in the Digital Age, edited by Bruce L. Cook, 45-50. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-3032-9.ch004

Export Reference

Mendeley
Favorite

Abstract

Many of those concerned about global peace advocate a policy of nuclear disarmament in order to eliminate the danger posed by these weapons. The logic is that eliminating the weapons would eliminate the danger they pose. But I argue that these are separate goals, that eliminating the weapons would not eliminate the danger, and in fact might make it worse. After the cold war, many thought that it was finally possible to rid the world of nuclear weapons, but since 1991, the world has not moved substantially towards this goal. The reason is that nuclear weapons create a security dilemma in which efforts to use them to make societies safer, through the practice of nuclear deterrence, end up making them less safe. This is because efforts (through minimum deterrence) to use them to avoid a deliberate nuclear attack create risk of nuclear war by escalation, and efforts (through counterforce deterrence) to minimize the risk of nuclear war by escalation, create the risk of deliberate nuclear attack. The way out of this dilemma is through delegitimization of nuclear weapons.

Request Access

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.