Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: AFRICAN HISTORY CHAOS Leonard Smith John Parker and Richard Rathbone CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson AND ELECTIONS L. Sandy Maisel CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY CLASSICS Charles O. Jones Mary Beard and John Henderson ANARCHISM Colin Ward CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Helen Morales ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard ANCIENT WARFARE THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon Harry Sidebottom CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore ANGLICANISM Mark Chapman CONTEMPORARY ART THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair Julian Stallabrass ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY ANTISEMITISM Steven Beller Simon Critchley ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn COSMOLOGY Peter Coles ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes CRYPTOGRAPHY ART HISTORY Dana Arnold Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DADA AND SURREALISM THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY David Hopkins Michael Hoskin DARWIN Jonathan Howard ATHEISM Julian Baggini THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Timothy Lim AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick BARTHES Jonathan Culler DESCARTES Tom Sorell BESTSELLERS John Sutherland DESIGN John Heskett THE BIBLE John Riches DINOSAURS David Norman THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea DOCUMENTARY FILM BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright Patricia Aufderheide BUDDHA Michael Carrithers DREAMING J. Allan Hobson BUDDHISM Damien Keown DRUGS Leslie Iversen BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown THE EARTH Martin Redfern CAPITALISM James Fulcher ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Langford Paul Wilkinson THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball ISLAM Malise Ruthven EMOTION Dylan Evans JOURNALISM Ian Hargreaves EMPIRE Stephen Howe JUDAISM Norman Solomon ENGELS Terrell Carver JUNG Anthony Stevens ETHICS Simon Blackburn KABBALAH Joseph Dan THE EUROPEAN UNION KAFKA Ritchie Robertson John Pinder and Simon Usherwood KANT Roger Scruton EVOLUTION KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Brian and Deborah Charlesworth THE KORAN Michael Cook EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn LAW Raymond Wacks FASCISM Kevin Passmore LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews FEMINISM Margaret Walters LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler THE FIRST WORLD WAR LOCKE John Dunn Michael Howard LOGIC Graham Priest FOSSILS Keith Thomson MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner FOUCAULT Gary Gutting THE MARQUIS DE SADE John Phillips THE FRENCH REVOLUTION MARX Peter Singer William Doyle MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers FREE WILL Thomas Pink MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope FREUD Anthony Storr MEDIEVAL BRITAIN FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths GALAXIES John Gribbin MODERN ART David Cottington GALILEO Stillman Drake MODERN CHINA Rana Mitter GAME THEORY Ken Binmore MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh MOLECULES Philip Ball GEOPOLITICS Klaus Dodds MUSIC Nicholas Cook GERMAN LITERATURE Nicholas Boyle MYTH Robert A. Segal GLOBAL CATASTROPHES Bill McGuire NATIONALISM Steven Grosby GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger THE NEW TESTAMENT AS GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin LITERATURE Kyle Keefer THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND NEWTON Robert Iliffe THE NEW DEAL Eric Rauchway NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner HABERMAS James Gordon Finlayson NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN HEGEL Peter Singer Christopher Harvie and HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood H. C. G. Matthew HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson NORTHERN IRELAND HINDUISM Kim Knott Marc Mulholland HISTORY John H. Arnold NUCLEAR WEAPONS HIV/AIDS Alan Whiteside Joseph M. Siracusa HOBBES Richard Tuck PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood PAUL E. P. Sanders HUMAN RIGHTS Andrew Clapham PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig HUME A. J. Ayer PHILOSOPHY OF LAW IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden Raymond Wacks INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary Samir Okasha INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards Khalid Koser PLATO Julia Annas POLITICS Kenneth Minogue SCHIZOPHRENIA POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone David Miller SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer POSTMODERNISM SIKHISM Eleanor Nesbitt Christopher Butler SOCIAL AND CULTURAL POSTSTRUCTURALISM ANTHROPOLOGY Catherine Belsey John Monaghan and Peter Just PREHISTORY Chris Gosden SOCIALISM Michael Newman PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Catherine Osborne SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor PSYCHOLOGY THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Gillian Butler and Freda McManus Helen Graham PSYCHIATRY Tom Burns SPINOZA Roger Scruton THE QUAKERS Pink Dandelion STUART BRITAIN John Morrill QUANTUM THEORY TERRORISM Charles Townshend John Polkinghorne THEOLOGY David F. Ford RACISM Ali Rattansi THE HISTORY OF TIME THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton Leofranc Holford-Strevens RENAISSANCE ART TRAGEDY Adrian Poole Geraldine A. Johnson THE TUDORS John Guy ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN THE ROMAN EMPIRE Kenneth O. Morgan Christopher Kelly THE VIKINGS Julian Richards ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling RUSSELL A. C. Grayling WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly THE WORLD TRADE THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ORGANIZATION S. A. Smith Amrita Narlikar Available soon: 1066 George Garnett NELSON MANDELA EXPRESSIONISM Katerina Reed-Tsocha Elleke Boehmer GEOGRAPHY SCIENCE AND RELIGION John Matthews and David Herbert Thomas Dixon HISTORY OF MEDICINE SEXUALITY Véronique Mottier William Bynum THE MEANING OF LIFE MEMORY Jonathan Foster Terry Eagleton For more information visit our website www.oup.co.uk/general/vsi/ Joseph M. Siracusa Nuclear Weapons A Very Short Introduction 1 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York  Joseph M. Siracusa 2008 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 978–0–19–922954–3 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire For my wife, Candice This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface xi List of illustrations xv 1 What are nuclear weapons? 1 2 Building the bomb 10 3 ‘A choice between the quick and the dead’ 27 4 Race for the H-bomb 40 5 Nuclear deterrence and arms control 61 6 Star Wars 82 7 Nuclear weapons in the age of terrorism 108 References and further reading 130 Index 139