Nuclear weapons and the abolition of war
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3694009 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Quinlan (0000-0001-7877-1188, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 293-301 |
| Publication date | 1991-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2620832 |
| OpenAlex | W2320033815 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
This article was given as an address by Britain's Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence to the Soviet General Staff in Moscow in November 1990. It is thus a unique explanation of NATO thinking, by a key NATO figure, directly to the adversary. It is both a philosophical justification of nuclear deterrence and an explanation of NATO's intention to maintain core elements of a nuclear armoury, with both long-range and lower levels kept up to date. Quinlan writes that the idea of war between developed nuclear powers is absurd, and precisely because of this nuclear weapons in the East-West setting represent ‘the keystone of an arch of freedom from war’. Their ‘use’ in war would be psychological and political: in the face of defeat, to make it clear to an aggressor that the defender is in fact refusing to yield
Adversary · Computer security · Deterrence theory · Face (sociological concept) · Nuclear warfare · Nuclear weapon · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Computer Science · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1993 - 2025 (33) |
| Highly cited | No |