France The Soviet Union And The Nuclear Weapons Issue

Dr. Laird provides the student of Soviet affairs, international security, and arms control with an understanding of the role of the Soviets in European security by examining the Soviet-French interaction. He first defines the general Soviet approach to European security issues and discusses it with specific reference to France. He identifies contem

A comprehensive study of the reasons for the Soviet deployment of the SS-20 missile in the 1970s and the reasons why they agreed to eliminate it in the 1987 INF Treaty. In the process, Haslam examines the evolution of Soviet foreign and defence policy towards Western Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.

This volume reviews the nuclear weapons policies of France, Britain, and China and analyzes their roles as independent deterrents in international politics. The end of a bipolar international system and deep reductions in the American and Russian nuclear arsenals have increased the relative importance of the nuclear forces of these three countries.

This book, first published in 1984, examines France’s independent nuclear weapons programme of the 1980s alongside the French peace movement, which was almost totally absent – in contrast to the peace protests of the US and the rest of Europe. This book analyses this unusual pattern of defence and dissent, and assesses its likely development. It looks at the evolvement of French post-war defence policy, and discusses the French peace movement, attempting to explain why it was so weak.

UNIDIR/91/68

Lawrence Freedman One of the major bonuses of the collapse of communism in Europe is that it may never again be necessary to enter into a sterile debate about whether it is better to be "red" or "dead." This appeared as the ultimate question in the great nuclear debate of the early 1980s. When put so starkly the answer appeared obvious better to live and struggle in a totalitarian system than to destroy totalitarian and democratic systems alike. There were a number of points to be made against this. Communist regimes had demonstrated the possibility of being both red and dead while the West had managed successfully to avoid the choice. If we allowed nuclear disarmament to become an overriding priority, this might encourage excessive respect for Soviet interests and a desire to avoid any sort of provocation to Moscow, a point not lost on those in Eastern Europe who were then struggling against repression and could not see why disarmament should be given a higher priority than freedom. Now that the old communist states have liberated themselves and the West no longer risks conspiring in their enslavement, there is a correspondingly re duced danger of mass death. As a result, and with so much else of immediate Lawrence Freedman • Department of War Studies, King's College, University of London, London WC2R 2LS, England. Nuclear Weapons in the Changing World: Perspectives from Europe, Asia, and North America.