Abstract
Scientists and physicians have made in recent years a great effort to educate and finally convince the men at the helm that a nuclear war would be suicide for all. When the leaders of the superpowers met in Geneva in 1985 they formally acknowledged this when they agreed that ‘A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought’. Implicit in this phrase is that nuclear weapons are of no use as military instruments for waging war. Nevertheless an important role is still assigned to them, namely to deter their use by the adversary. A sufficient number of nuclear weapons must be maintained in the arsenals, so that — if attacked — enough will survive to ensure inflicting unacceptable damage in a retaliatory attack. This is the strategy of deterrence, the corner-stone of the security policy of many states.
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Notes
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, World Armaments and Disarmament: SIPRI Yearbook 1987 (Oxford, 1987).
Lord Zuckerman, Science Advisers and Nuclear Weapons (London, 1980).
Herbert York, Race to Oblivion (New York, 1970).
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Annual Report 1980 (Los Alamos, 1980).
J. P. Holdren, ‘The Dynamics of the Nuclear Arms Race: History, Status, Prospects’, Energy and Resources Group Working Paper no. 83–5, University of California, 1983.
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© 1989 Unione Scienzati per il Disarmo Convegno Internazionale
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Rotblat, J. (1989). Technology, the Arms Race and Disarmament. In: Schaerf, C., Reid, B.H., Carlton, D. (eds) New Technologies and the Arms Race. Studies in Disarmament and Conflicts. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10615-8_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10615-8_21
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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