Nuclear Reactions : How Nuclear Armed States Behave Frontmatter Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction How Do New Nuclear States Behave Chapter 1 Nuclear Opportunism How States Use Nuclear Weapons in International Politics Chapter 2 Independence and Status The British Nuclear Experience Chapter 3 Apartheid and Aggression South Africa Angola and the Bomb Chapter 4 The Foundations of a New World Order The United States and the Start of the Nuclear Era Chapter 5 Past and Future Proliferators Conclusion Nuclear Revolution or Nuclear Revolutions Notes Index Mark Bell argues that nuclear weapons are useful for more than just deterrence. Instead they are leveraged to pursue a wide range of goals in international politics and the nations that acquire them significantly change their foreign policies as a result. Bell closely examines how these effects vary and what those variations have meant in the United States the United Kingdom and South Africa. Countries arent generically emboldened they change their foreign policies in different ways based on what their priorities are. This has huge policy implications: what would Iran do if it were to get nuclear weapons Would Japanese policy toward the United States change if it were to acquire nuclear weapons And what does the looming threat of nuclear weapons mean for the future of foreign policy Far from being a relic of the Cold War Bell argues nuclear weapons are just as important in international politics today as they ever were