Overview
- Includes citations of new declassified documentary source material regarding the US role in the Cold War
- Written by two top scholars with expertise in nuclear security issues
- Aims to connect novel insights gleaned from the Cold War era with recent developments in contemporary geopolitics
Part of the book series: The Evolving American Presidency (EAP)
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book will illustrate that despite the variations of nuclear tensions during the Cold War period—from nuclear inception, to mass proliferation, to arms control treaties and détente, through to an intensification and “reasonable” conclusion (the INF Treaty and START being case points)—the “lessons” over the last decade are quickly being unlearned. Given debates surrounding the emerging “new Cold War,” the deterioration of relations between Russia and the United States, and the concurrent challenges being made by key nuclear states in obfuscating arms control mechanisms, this book attempts to provide a much needed revisit into US presidential foreign policy during the Cold War. Across nine chapters, the monograph traces the United States’ nuclear diplomacy and Presidential strategic thought, transitioning across the early period of Cold War arms racing through to the era’s defining conclusion. It will reveal that notwithstanding the heightened periods when great power conflict seemed imminent, arms control fora and seminal agreements were able to be devised, implemented, and provided a needed base in bringing down the specter of a cataclysmic nuclear war, as well as improving bilateral relations. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of American foreign policy, diplomatic history, security studies and international relations.
Reviews
“In US Presidents and Cold War Nuclear Diplomacy, Warren and Siracusa have effectively synthesized and analyzed the contours of presidential leadership on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Their account highlights both the significance of the issue for that conflict, and seeks applicable lessons for today’s international environment, and the return of “Great Power competition” and the possibility of a new nuclear arms race. This is an important book that should be read by both policy-makers and students of international relations.
—Thomas Schwartz, Professor of History and Political Science, Vanderbilt University, USA
“This is an important and timely book. At a time when tensions between the United States and China and Iran (not to mention Russia and North Korea) are perilously escalating, this analysis of United States Cold War nuclear diplomacy through nine presidents powerfully demonstrates the dangers, and more importantly the futility, of portrayals and overblown rhetorical exaggerations by US leaders and their allies when describing the ambitions, intentions, and capabilities, of their adversaries. Warren and Siracusa persuasively argue that in this post-Cold War age of nuclear proliferation what is needed to enhance national security is quiet cooperative nuclear control diplomacy, not alarmist public rhetoric. It is a cautionary tale that should be read by everyone—especially by policy-makers and politicians. —Ian J. Bickerton, Professor of History, University of New South Wales, Australia
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Aiden Warren, Associate Professor of International Relations, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
Joseph M. Siracusa, Professor of Political History and International Security, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: US Presidents and Cold War Nuclear Diplomacy
Authors: Aiden Warren, Joseph M. Siracusa
Series Title: The Evolving American Presidency
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61954-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-61953-4Published: 16 February 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-61956-5Published: 16 February 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-61954-1Published: 15 February 2021
Series ISSN: 2945-6150
Series E-ISSN: 2945-6169
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 262
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Science, Legislative and Executive Politics, Political History