Security Without Nuclear Deterrence

Revised and Updated 2018 Edition Eight years on from the first edition, worsening relations between the West and Russia, and the US and North Korea, have brought nuclear weapons back to the forefront of world attention and public concern. Almost thirty years after the Cold War ended, some 14,500 nuclear weapons remain; and the nuclear weapon states are all modernising their nuclear arsenals. They cite nuclear deterrence doctrine as the final, indispensable justification for maintaining them. This drives the spread of nuclear weapons to paranoid regimes and extremists who are least likely to be deterred. The fallacies of nuclear deterrence must, therefore, be exposed and alternatives offered if there is to be any serious prospect of eliminating nuclear weapons. A former operator of British nuclear weapons, Commander Green has drawn together a concise, carefully researched and documented account of the history, practicalities and dangerous contradictions at the heart of nuclear deterrence. He offers more credible, effective and responsible alternative strategies to deter aggression and achieve real security. Vice Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham KCB, MA, a leading authority on deterrence, has written a major new Foreword to this edition, on the most sensitive and contentious issue in British defence policy with huge implications for the effectiveness, image, and ethos of the Royal Navy. He concludes: ‘This is a most important contribution to the debate on a subject which is crucial to the survival of the human race, and it needs to be read with a degree of humility and an open mind – qualities not always apparent among our decision-makers and their advisers.’ Read more