Content area
Full Text
DETERRENCE AND SECURITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: China, Britain, France, and the Enduring Legacy of the Nuclear Revolution. By Avery Goldstein. Stanford (California): Stanford University Press. 2000. 356 pp. US$49.50, cloth. ISBN 0-8047-3736-3.
What will be the likely role of nuclear weapons in the international system in the twenty-first century? Much recent writing about international politics highlights the changes that have followed from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, emphasizing that the key role of nuclear weapons in the security policies of states is or should be ending as well. In contrast, in his latest book Avery Goldstein identifies an important continuity. He argues that despite its receded role in public consciousness, nuclear deterrence will remain at the core of the security policies of the world's great powers and will remain an attractive option for many other less powerful states worried about adversaries whose capabilities they cannot match. This continuity, he suggests, will characterize...