Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3054: Nuclear Weapons in International Relations

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover all or some of the following topics: 1) the history of nuclear weapons, starting in World War II; 2) a range of highly contested analytical and normative problems created in the nuclearized era; and 3) competing arguments for how states should approach and manage nuclear weapons in our time.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities2211 x 2-hour seminars
Guided Independent Study50Private study – reading and preparing for seminars
Guided Independent Study78Preparation for essay – including researching and collating relevant sources; planning the structure and argument; writing up the essay.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

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.

(This reading list is indicative – 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.)

  • 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, ed. Peter Paret (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 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 1976-77): 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 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-46).
  • John Mueller, “The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons: Stability in the Postwar World,” International Security 13, No. 2 (Fall 1988): 55-79.