Nuclear Politics

While the Cold War ended more than two decades ago and global nuclear stockpiles have shrunk dramatically, there are still around 18,000 nuclear warheads distributed among nine nuclear armed states. Against the backdrop of continual political tensions and conflict, the nuclear issue will continue to dominate headlines for several decades into the future.

This new four-volume Major Work explores this important issue and aims to introduce readers to the key arguments and authors in the field. With such a wide variety of theoretical approaches and substantive topics under the umbrella of nuclear politics, this collection will not only allow the reader to peruse the diverse explanations for the regime, proliferation, nonproliferation and disarmament, it will also guide them through the intellectual history of the field.  

Volume One: The Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime
Volume Two: Nuclear Proliferation
Volume Three: Nuclear Nonproliferation
Volume Four: Nuclear Disarmament and Alternative Voices on Nuclear Issues

Maria Rost Rublee is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University in Canberra. Her book, Nonprofileration Norms: Why States Choose Nuclear Restraint (University of Georgia Press, 2009) recieved the Alexander George Book Award for best book in political psychology. Rublee has recieved major grants on nuclear related topics from the United States Institute of Peace, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Marsden Foundation in New Zealand. She has also published articles in numerous international journals, including International Studies Review, Comparative Political Studies and Nonprofliferation Review, and is a member of the International Fissile Material Working Group.

Ramesh Thakur is a Director of the Centre for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament at the Australian National University (ANU) and Professor of International relations in the ANU′s Crawford School of Public Policy. Educated in India and Canada, he was formerly Senior Vice Rector and UN Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations University before becoming the Foundation Director of the Balsille School of International Affairs in Ontario, Canada. He has also held full-time academic appointments in Fiji and New Zealand, and was a Responsibility to Protect Commissioner and Principal Writer of Secretary-General Kofi Annan′s 2002 UN reform report. Author and editor of over 40 books and 400 articles, he also serves on the international advisory boards institutes in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.