The Nuclear Tipping Point

Why States Reconsider Their Nuclear Choices

by Kurt M. Campbell, Robert J. Einhom and Mitchell B. Reiss

Brookings Institution Press, 2004

ISBN: 9780815713302
No. pages: 367

Category: Economics & Politics

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In this summary you will learn

• What would encourage eight nonnuclear countries to remain that way
• How the U.S. plays a central role in global nonproliferation
• How certain nations' development of nuclear weaponry could cause a "tipping point" that would encourage other nations to seek nuclear weapons

Why you should read The Nuclear Tipping Point

This book stems from a three-year-long collaboration between the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary. Scholars studied eight countries currently committed to nonproliferation - Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan - to determine what scenarios might make them change their minds. The objective was to study how the nuclear genie might get out of the bottle - but it also indicates ways to keep it contained. The book intentionally does not focus on proliferator states, such as North Korea or Iran. Even with that omission, getAbstract recommends it for the stark realities its research uncovers. One is that nonproliferating nations all look to the U.S. for reassurance that the world will stay safe for those without nuclear weapons. Another is that the world must stop Iran and North Korea's atomic ambitions, lest a tipping point occurs that would provoke other nations to conclude that their security requires swinging the biggest stick.

About the Authors

The book's editors are: Kurt M. Campbell, a former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific, and senior vice president and director of international security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Robert J. Einhorn, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation at the Department of State, and a senior advisor in the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and Mitchell B. Reiss, former director of the Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William and Mary.