Nuclear Designs: Great Britain, France, and China in the Global Governance of Nuclear Arms

(New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA: Transaction Publishers [Rutgers University], 1996).

Bruce D. Larkin

Summary

The Cold War has given way to new agendas for global security policy, but Cold War legacies persist. Among the most vexing are nuclear programs, stocks, and deployments. The keen edge of fear associated with the Cold War is blunted. Nonetheless, the five declared nuclear weapons states continue to modernise their forces and deploy them, ready for use. Others have followed suit, or aspire to do so. Nuclear Designs observes the new candor in US-Russian nuclear relations and points out the broader opportunity this makes possible for frank conversation about the utility and dangers of nuclear arms.

At this new juncture of the latter 1990s states face a global choice among alternative nuclear futures. If the Cold War inoculated states against a return to runaway nuclear arming, the choices come down to three: the status quo, disengagement, or abolition. Larkin examines the nuclear weapons programs of Britain, France, and China, to explore how their substantial capabilities and declared purposes bear on choices for a nuclear future, and showing how they justify the status quo.

Britain and France say their nuclear forces are key to their security in the present world. China would not give up her force except as part of a comprehensive renunciation. Nuclear Designs presents the arguments they offer for their weapons and sets out the nuclear establishments, political institutions, concerns, and public views which illuminate their belief that nuclear weapons serve their interests.

Larkin concludes that the three `minipowers' not only reenforce nuclearism-in which nuclear war is held at bay by terror and uncertain self-restraint-but also by their example complicate the case against proliferation. If they should decide, instead, that abolition or agreed and safeguarded non-deployment would in fact enhance their security, then they would have extraordinary leverage on Russia and the United States to bring the two preeminent nuclear states into such a regime, and could make a compelling case for others' renunciation of nuclear deployments and nuclear aspirations. He urges ongoing government and private steps to model and simulate non-deployment and abolition regimes, in order to refine non-nuclearist options and address practical concerns for nuclear-free security.

Nuclear Designs will be of interest to students and scholars of international affairs, policymakers, miltary analysts, and those with a concern for the nuclear issue. Bruce D. Larkin is Professor of Politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz and editor of Vital Interests: The Soviet Issue in U.S. Central American Policy.

ISBN: 1-56000-239-5 (cloth) Published: January 1996.
Transaction Publishers. Rutgers University.

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Cataloging-in-Publication [CIP] Information

The following statement appears in the front matter of Nuclear Designs.

Copyright © 1996 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Transaction Publishers, Rutgers--The State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903.

This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-23279
ISBN: 1-56000-239-5
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Larkin, Bruce D., 1936-
Nuclear designs : Great Britain, France, and China in the global governance of nuclear arms / Bruce D. Larkin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56000-239-5 (alk. paper)
1. Nuclear weapons--Government policy--Great Britain. 2. Nuclear weapons--Government policy--France. 3. Nuclear weapons--Government policy--China. 4. Nuclear arms control. 5. Nuclear nonproliferation. 6. World politics--1989- I. Title.
U264.5.G7L37 1995
327.1'74--dc20 95-23279
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	NUCLEAR POLICY STUDIES:				GRAPHICS & TEXTS:			LINKS:
	Nuclear Designs: Great Britain, France, and China in the Global Governance of Nuclear Arms [Transaction Publishers, 1996]				British SSBNs	French SNLEs		Denuclearization Links to other sites and Web-accessible documents on nuclear abolition and arms control. [12 January 1997].
	"Comprehensive Test Ban" [28 February 1996] and a 21 June 1996 addendum on China's CTB policy.				The Acheson-Lilienthal Report [16 March 1946]: Report on the International Control of Atomic Energy.			Re CTB