Introduction: in defense of some optimism

1981 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. Quester
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
International System ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
The World ◽  
National Power ◽  
Major Disruption

The spread of nuclear weapons would make the world a much less stable place, and such a spread may be difficult to stop. Yet proliferation is not as yet inevitable.Several viewpoints are implicitly rejected in this collection. One is that nuclear proliferation would actually be desirable for the world. Another is that such weapons spread is inevitable. Other rejected viewpoints are that such spread can be halted only by a crash program, by a brutal exercise of American national power, or by a substantial surrender of such power.The international system may indeed hamper a nonproliferation effort in various ways—for example, in a drastic worsening of Soviet-American relations or a major disruption of world oil production.Yet the most important counter to pessimism about containing proliferation comes from the world's awareness of how bad actual proliferation would be. States which pretend to be indifferent or resigned to such nuclear weapons spread will quietly be making contributions to halting it.

Preventing proliferation: the impact on international politics

1981 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. Quester
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
International System ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Economic Exchange ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Political Clout ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pariah States

Nine predictions are advanced on the impact on the international system of a successful effort to contain nuclear proliferation.The world will see a modest dilution of the prerogatives of sovereignty, very much tailored to the halting of nuclear weapons spread. Some breakthroughs will be achieved in the multinational management of nuclear industry. Current “pariah states” may escape such status, simply through the latent possibility of nuclear proliferation. Nuclear weapons will continue to go unused in combat, just as they have since 1945. Soviet-American cooperation on the nuclear proliferation front will continue. The traffic in conventional arms may by contrast go relatively unchecked, as most countries conclude that this kind of weapons spread is less bad than nuclear proliferation. All of this will be carried through by statements distorted by the normal deceptions of diplomacy. The world will nonetheless generally become more sophisticated in discounting any glamor or political clout in nuclear weapons programs. Most of the barrier to proliferation will come through normal political and economic exchange, rather than through any violent or military interventions.

Nuclear Proliferation and Nuclear Entitlement

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 101-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Lee
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
International Security ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
The World ◽  
Dangerous Place

The debate over nuclear proliferation has generated a large literature, but this literature does not adequately address the moral issues. A moral analysis of proliferation must go beyond concerns of international security. In this essay, Lee addresses the following questions: (1) Does nuclear proliferation make the world a more dangerous place; that is, does it increase security? (2) Is it morally permissible for a nonnuclear state to acquire nuclear weapons? (3) What are morally permissible actions for states trying to keep other states from acquiring nuclear weapons?

A Plea for Restraint

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Ruzicka
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
International Order ◽  
The State ◽  
State System ◽  
World Government ◽  
Complete Destruction ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

This essay reconstructs Hedley Bull’s position on nuclear proliferation in The Anarchical Society. Avoiding the extremes of nuclear optimism and pessimism, Bull provided nuanced arguments about the relationship between nuclear proliferation and international order. Bull remained agnostic as to what the world of many nuclear powers would look like. He used this unpredictability to emphasize the notion of restraint involving both superpower cooperation to prevent states from going nuclear as well as the exercise of self-restraint on the part of superpowers. Showing restraint was crucial to the continued existence of the states system. Bull worried that proliferation represented a particular threat to it. Nuclear weapons exposed states to the prospect of sudden and complete destruction. This could lead to the abolition of the state system and its replacement with world government, to which Bull was strongly opposed. The conclusion illustrates Bull’s relevance in relation to the recent pursuit of non-proliferation.

12. The Second Nuclear Age: Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century

2018 ◽  
pp. 202-219
Author(s):  
C. Dale Walton
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Arms Control ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
First Century ◽  
Strategic Culture ◽  
Nuclear Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the role played by nuclear weapons in international politics during and after the cold war, making a distinction between the First Nuclear Age and the ongoing Second Nuclear Age. After providing a background on the First Nuclear Age, the chapter considers the various risks present in the Second Nuclear Age, focusing on issues related to nuclear deterrence, nuclear proliferation networks, strategic culture, and ballistic missile defences. It then discusses the assumption that arms control and disarmament treaties are the best means to further counterproliferation efforts. It also assesses the future of nuclear weapons and whether the world is facing a Third Nuclear Age before concluding with an analysis of the relevance of deterrence in the face of changing political and technological circumstances.

Not that bad: looking back on 65 years of nuclear non-proliferation efforts

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sico van der Meer
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
Biological Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Disarmament ◽  
The World ◽  
Chemical And Biological Weapons ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Looking Back

AbstractFrom the moment that their enormous destructive capacity was first shown to the world, nuclear weapons are universally considered as the most cruel weapons that exist. Nevertheless, several countries developed nuclear weapons since then. At the same time, much international efforts have been put into stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and, eventually, reaching complete nuclear disarmament. Looking in retrospective, how successful have these efforts been in the last 65 years? After a concise comparison between forecasts and outcomes of the nuclear proliferation process, this article analyses a variety of non-proliferation efforts, and also compares them to the accomplishments in the field of chemical and biological weapons.

Role of Enforcement in Stabilization of Non-Proliferation Regime

2010 ◽  
pp. 14-27
Author(s):  
A. Kalyadin
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The World ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
The Way

The practical use of nuclear weapons displayed the necessity to toughen the responsibility for serious contempt of the international legal non-proliferation norm, to make the NPT regime more "sharp-toothed", to fill vivid gaps in this regime and place a reliable safety screen in the way of nuclear arsenals creation. The author investigates the means and tools of nuclear proliferation interception, and suggests options to produce an essential positive effect by weakening of pressure on the world politics from some countries' powerful forces which make the case for other legitimized coercion sources referring to the "ineffectiveness" of the UN.

scholarly journals NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION AND ROGUE STATES: CONCERNS, REALITIES AND FUTURE THREATS

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Rani Erum
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
World War ◽  
Material Technology ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Rogue States ◽  
Private Organizations ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
The World

Proliferation of Nuclear technology is accepted as a grave threat to the world. However, after the initial use of this lethal weapon at the end of World War II, the technology and techniques were transferred from secret government programs and by private organizations in various fields. Such transformation has been amplified by the privatization of civil nuclear energy projects, as well as other established industries in such way that at the time of need they can use the technology in making of nuclear weapons. Thus, this advancement of nuclear weapons program, material, technology and expertise are not only accessible for purchase from nongovernmental institutions but it has also increased the threat of its misuse by non-state actors. This study examines not only reasons of military nuclearization adopted by powers that be and their regional rivals but also provide comprehensive analysis of relating threats of acquiring this devastating technology by Rogue states and non-states actors and possible future perils faced by the world due to misuse.

scholarly journals The causes of proliferation of nuclear weapons: The case of the Middle East

Vojno delo ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Vladislav Stefanović
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Nuclear Proliferation ◽  
East Region ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
To Come ◽  
Middle East Region

The subject of this paper is nuclear proliferation and its implications for regional and world security. The study seeks to explain the motive of states to come into possession of nuclear weapons. It also looks at the consequences for the region if one of the states comes into possession of nuclear weapons. The subject matter of the study covers the Middle East region to the greatest extent. Since proliferation is also present outside the region, other cases of proliferation will be included in the research. Proliferation cases outside the Middle East region will be a guide to understanding the proliferation developments in this region, and will seek to explain the causes of nuclear proliferation in the world.

Aftershocks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seva Gunitsky
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
International System ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Past Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sudden Rise ◽  
The World ◽  
National Borders

Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. This book offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat—not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism, and communism. The book argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the international system. These hegemonic shocks, marked by the sudden rise and fall of great powers, have been essential and often-neglected drivers of domestic transformations. Though rare and fleeting, they not only repeatedly alter the global hierarchy of powerful states but also create unique and powerful opportunities for sweeping national reforms—by triggering military impositions, swiftly changing the incentives of domestic actors, or transforming the basis of political legitimacy itself. As a result, the evolution of modern regimes cannot be fully understood without examining the consequences of clashes between great powers, which repeatedly—and often unsuccessfully—sought to cajole, inspire, and intimidate other states into joining their camps.

The Unified World Order

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Bakare Adewale Muteeu
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
International System ◽  
World Order ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Open World ◽  
The World ◽  
Capitalist World ◽  
The Rich

In pursuit of a capitalist world configuration, the causal phenomenon of globalization spread its cultural values in the built international system, as evidenced by the dichotomy between the rich North and the poor South. This era of cultural globalization is predominantly characterized by social inequality, economic inequality and instability, political instability, social injustice, and environmental change. Consequently, the world is empirically infected by divergent global inequalities among nations and people, as evidenced by the numerous problems plaguing humanity. This article seeks to understand Islam from the viewpoint of technological determinism in attempt to offset these diverging global inequalities for its “sociopolitical economy”1existence, as well as the stabilization of the interconnected world. Based upon the unifying view of microIslamics, the meaning of Islam and its globalizing perspectives are deciphered on a built micro-religious platform. Finally, the world is rebuilt via the Open World Peace (OWP) paradigm, from which the fluidity of open globalization is derived as a future causal phenomenon for seamlessly bridging (or contracting) the gaps between the rich-rich, rich-poor, poor-rich and poor-poor nations and people based on common civilization fronts.

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