10nfl1-Nukes-Cover
IF THE US NUCLEAR UMBRELLA COLLAPSES, GERMANY AND JAPAN
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| IF THE US NUCLEAR UMBRELLA COLLAPSES, GERMANY AND JAPAN MAY PROLIFERATE. Michael Mandelbaum Director of American Foreign Policy @ Johns Hopkins University, ʻ97] US Foreign Policy And Nuclear Weapons Today SAIS Review 17.1 (1997), pp. 73-92 Indeed, the attention the American government lavished on reinforcing the credibility of "extended deterrence"--the protection of countries on the other side of the Atlantic, with all the risks involved in convincing Moscow that the United States was "coupled" to Western Europe--was seen during the Cold War as a substitute for, and thus away of avoiding, German acquisition of nuclear weapons. While the commitment to defend Germany with American nuclear weapons might have been subject to doubt, the commitment to defend Germany with German nuclear arms would not have been. Both Americans and Germans believed, however, that it was important that the German Federal Republic not have nuclear weapons of its own, for that would have been regarded by the Soviet Union, which deployed a large army on German territory, as a provocation. With the end of the Cold War, both the need for either German or Japanese nuclear weapons and the anxieties generated by the prospect that either would acquire them are in decline. Yet neither is entirely extinct. To be sure, neither country wants nuclear weapons. Both much prefer to retain the status of nonnuclear weapon states if at all possible. Indeed, the German and Japanese publics are strongly allergic to such arms. This is the legacy of their experiences in World War II--Germany's experience as an aggressor and Japan's experience as the victim of history's only two nuclear attacks. Yet for all their aversion to them, these countries might feel compelled to acquire nuclear weapons if they found themselves without US nuclear protection. In such circumstances, they would beat a disadvantage in dealing with their large, nuclear-armed neighbors, Russia and China. For purely defensive reasons, they could come to regard the possession of their own nuclear weapons as necessary for their safety. 10NFL1-Nuclear Weapons Page 155 of 199 www.victorybriefs.com Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
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