Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3054: Nuclear Weapons in International Relations

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Basic reading: 

  • Lawrence Freedman, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy (London: Macmillan, 1982).
  • Lawrence Freedman, “The First Two Generations of Nuclear Strategists,” in Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, Peter Paret, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), 735-778.
  • Richard Smoke, National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma, 3rd ed. (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1993), Chapter 13 (pp. 236-263).
  • Albert Wohlstetter, “The Delicate Balance of Terror,” Foreign Affairs 37, no. 2 (January, 1959): 211-234.
  • Paul H. Nitze, “Deterring Our Deterrent,” Foreign Policy 25 (Winter, 1976/1977): 195-210.
  • Robert Jervis, “Why Nuclear Superiority Doesn’t Matter,” Political Science Quarterly 94, no. 4 (Winter, 1979/1980): 617-633.
  • Marc Trachtenberg, “The Influence of Nuclear Weapons in the Cuban Missile Crisis,” International Security 10, no. 1 (Summer, 1985), 136-163.
  • Avery Goldstein, Deterrence and Security in the 21st Century (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002).
  • Scott Sagan and Kenneth Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed 3rd ed. (New York: Norton, 2013).
  • Scott Sagan, “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb,” International Security 21, no. 3 (Winter, 1996-1997): 54-86.
  • Jacques E.C. Hymans, The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Chapters 1, 2 (pp. 1-46).
  • Mueller, John. “The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons: Stability in the Postwar World,” International Security Vol. 13, No. 2 (Fall 1988), pp. 55-79.