Power versus prudence
Subtitle: why nations forgo nuclear weapons
By: T.V. Paul.
Contributors: Teleglobe Raoul-Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies.; Université du Québec à Montréal. Centre d'études des politiques étrangères et de sécurité.
Series: Foreign policy, security and strategic studies; Foreign policy, security, and strategic studies
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 2000-01-01
Place of publication: Montreal
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
Subjects: Nuclear weapons -- Government policy; Nuclear nonproliferation; Security, International
Description: "In Power versus Prudence Paul develops a prudential-realist model, arguing that a nation's national nuclear choices depend on specific regional security contexts: the non-great power states most likely to forgo nuclear weapons are those in zones of low and moderate conflict, while nations likely to acquire such capability tend to be in zones of high conflict and engaged in protracted conflicts and enduring rivalries.

He demonstrates that the choice to forbear acquiring nuclear weapons is also a function of the extent of security interdependence that states experience with other states, both allies and adversaries. He applies the comparative case study method to pairs of states with similar characteristics - Germany/Japan, Canada/Australia, Sweden/Switzerland, Argentina/Brazil - in addition to analysing the nuclear choices of South Africa, Ukraine, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel.

Paul concludes by questioning some of the prevailing supply side approaches to non-proliferation, offering an explication of the security variable by linking nuclear proliferation with protracted conflicts and enduring rivalries." "Power versus Prudence will be of interest to students of international relations, policy-makers, policy analysts, and the informed public concerned with the questions of nuclear weapons, non-proliferation, and disarmament."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Published for the Centre for Security and Foreign Policy Studies and The Teleglobe+Raoul-Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-217) and index.