The Criminality Of Nuclear Deterrence

This book critically examines U.S. attempts to establish a nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union and offers new approaches to dealing with the changing strategic environment. Dr. Payne maintains that the most influential theories of nuclear deterrence--Assured Vulnerability and Flexible Targeting—are unrealistic, given Soviet foreign policy and attitudes toward nuclear war, and no longer adequately meet the requirements of U.S. national security. Identifying an approach compatible with U.S. security commitments, he argues that future U.S. policy should focus on defeating the "Soviet theory of victory"--on threatening Soviet military forces and domestic and external political control assets, while also defending the U.S. against nuclear attack. The discussion covers recent developments, among them the "new nuclear strategy" of the Carter administration and President Reagan's new weapons program.

This is a text on the traditional questions of nuclear deterrence and the unconventional answers suggested by the emerging new world order. These widely-ranging essays by scholars, policymakers and moral philosophers present rival ideas about the morality of alternative means for preserving mutual security as the world moves beyond the Cold War.

Striking a balance between the philosophical and the pragmatic, these original essays examine the moral and strategic paradoxes found in the policy of nuclear deterrence, how uncertainty and fear can become a source of strength and how increased power of destruction might make us safer. The essays analyze the logical structure of mutually assured destruction theory and of nuclear use theory, the moral arguments of the Pastoral Letter on Deterrence of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the nuclear freeze movement and the role of experts in the formulation of nuclear policy. The authors stress the need for responsible public involvement and the obligation of citizens to be informed on these questions. ISBN 0-8476-7329-4 : $29.95.