Deterrence

Abstract

The brief hope of international control of atomic energy which would prevent an atomic arms race had foundered by early 1947. The brief hope of atomic co-operation with the United States had already run on to the rocks by the spring of 1946, and yet the possibility that it might be refloated prevented for years effective co-operation with the Commonwealth and Europe. The only collaboration manifestly open to Britain was with Canada, and here Britain had chosen loose co-operation rather than the integration which the Canadians had at first desired. So partly voluntarily, but mainly involuntarily, Britain built up her atomic project in near independence.