December 14, 2004 :: Analysis
The latest in a series of books co-published by the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center and the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute has been released and is available in full online. Edited by Henry D. Sokolski, Getting MAD is a collection of timely essays about how one may think about nuclear proliferation and nuclear strategy today.
Claremont Institute Fellow Mark T. Clark contributes a chapter to the book, which considers the recent nuclear proliferation to a number of smaller regimes, and asks whether the cold war framework of purely offensive deterrence, namely mutually assured destruction, can be imposed upon them with any level of confidence—or even with a straight face. Do North Korea and Iran pursue nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them only to deter others? Clark concludes that “the idea that SNPs [small nuclear powers] are limited to some form of mini-MAD deterrent seems unreasonably optimistic. The optimism rests on the notion that because MAD, even its mini-version, would be so catastrophic that its realization is exceedingly remote, if not a virtual impossibility.”
Such faith in the nuclear deterrence doctrines of the past rests upon the idea of that somehow merely technological advances in destructive capacity—the “nuclear revolution”—have somehow rendered obsolete the classical rules, ends, and possible outcomes of war. But human nature remains the same, and so do the purposes of strategy. It is for precisely these reasons that war, even nuclear war, is still possible even in the post-Cold War era. And it is for just this reason that missile defenses to defend against the inevitable proliferation of such technologies are so important. (Article)
» Getting MAD in .pdf form
» Biography and writings by Mark T. Clark
» More stories on: Analysis, Nuclear Weapons, Proliferation
