Clean and bright, with no owners' marks; a little light shelf rubbing at the corners and spine ends of the soft cover, otherwise excellent.

Clean and bright, with no owners' marks; a little light shelf rubbing at the corners and spine ends of the soft cover, otherwise excellent.

ix, [1], 319, [3] pages. Footnotes. Contributors. Index. Marginal ink marks

ix, [1], 319, [3] pages. Footnotes. Contributors. Index. Marginal ink marks and underlining noted. Trade paperback with no dust jacket. Foreword by General Larry D. Welch. This is one of the BCSIA [Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs] Studies in International Security with sponsorship of the Institute for Defense Analyses. Among the contributors are George Quester and Brad Roberts. Victor A. Utgoff, a prominent official at the Institute for Defense Analyses, has written extensively about military matters, especially about the threat of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. He first collaborated with Barry M. Blechman on Fiscal and Economic Implications of Strategic Defenses, then wrote The Challenge of Chemical Weapons: An American Perspective. He also contributed to The American Military in the Twentieth Century, a book that asks important questions about the implications of a downsized U.S. military force. Utgoff has also edited The Coming Crisis: Nuclear Proliferation, U.S. Interests, and World Order, a timely series of essays by recognized scholars on an important global issue. The book raises many questions about what the United States should do with its nuclear arsenal if deterrence should fail. In the first half, the authors discuss the reasons nation-states decide to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. Essays in the second address the possibility of nuclear crises between the U. S. and a regional power, and the consequences of such confrontations. Several critics found The Coming Crisis a useful contribution to the growing literature on nuclear proliferation. How will continued proliferation of nuclear weapons change the global political order? This collection of essays comes to conclusions at odds with the conventional wisdom. Stephen Rosen and Barry Posen explore how nuclear proliferation may affect US incentives to confront regional aggression. Stephen Walt argues that regional allies will likely prove willing to stand with a strong and ready United States against nuclear-backed aggression. George Quester and Brad Roberts examine long-term strategic objectives in responding to nuclear attack by a regional aggressor. Richard Betts highlights the potential for disastrous mistakes in moving toward and living in a world heavily populated with nuclear-armed states. Scott Sagan explains how the nuclear nonproliferation policies best suited to some states can spur proliferation by others. Caroline Ziemke shows how the analysis of a state's strategic personality can provide insights into why it might want nuclear weapons and how its policies may develop once it gets them. And, Victor Utgoff concludes that the United States seems more likely to intervene against regional aggression when the aggressor has nuclear weapons than when it does not.