NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION HELPS MAINTAIN PEACE, AND PREVENTS WAR Kenneth Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons More May Better Adelphi Papers, Number 171 (London International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1981) Nuclear weapons have been the second force working for peace in the postwar world. They make the cost of war seem frighteningly high and thus discourage states from starting any wars that might lead to the use of such weapons. Nuclear weapons have helped maintain peace between the great powers and have not led their few other possessors into military adventures Their further spread, however, causes widespread fear. Much of the writing about the spread of nuclear weapons has this unusual trait It tells us that what did no, happen in the past is likely to happen in the future, that tomorrow's nuclear states are likely to do to one another what today's nuclear states have not done. A happy nuclear past leads many to expect an unhappy nuclear future. This is odd, and the oddity leads me to believe that we should reconsider how weapons affect the situation of their possessors.
10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 142 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com
