The End of Strategic Stability?: Nuclear Weapons and the Challenge of Regional Rivalries

During the Cold War, many believed that the superpowers shared a conception of strategic stability, a coexistence where both sides would compete for global influence but would be deterred from using nuclear weapons. In actuality, both sides understood strategic stability and deterrence quite differently. Today’s international system is further complicated by more nuclear powers, regional rivalries, and nonstate actors who punch above their weight, but the United States and other nuclear powers still cling to old conceptions of strategic stability.

The purpose of this book is to unpack and examine how different states in different regions view strategic stability, the use or non-use of nuclear weapons, and whether or not strategic stability is still a prevailing concept. The contributors to this volume explore policies of current and potential nuclear powers including the United States, Russia, China, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. This volume makes an important contribution toward understanding how nuclear weapons will impact the international system in the twenty-first century and will be useful to students, scholars, and practitioners of nuclear weapons policy.

Lawrence Rubin is an associate professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author and editor of three books, including Islam in the Balance: Ideational Threats in Arab Politics.

Adam N. Stulberg is Neal Family Chair and CoDirector of the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy at the Sam Nunn School, Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author and editor of five books including, the co-edited volume The Nuclear Energy Renaissance and International Security.