Britain and Non-Nuclear Defence

Abstract

In the United Kingdom, defence has come to be seen, rightly or wrongly, as a largely nuclear business. Not only do we share with our allies in NATO a reliance on possible first use of nuclear weapons in the event of a major conflict in Europe, but in many respects the United Kingdom is actually more dependent on nuclear weapons than other countries. No other country in the world has a defence policy involving all of the following three elements of reliance on nuclear weapons: (i) formal military alliance with a nuclear power (the NATO alliance with the USA); (ii) nuclear bases and facilities of an allied state (USA) situated on its territory; and (iii) possession of its own nuclear weapons and delivery systems of various types. We thus have three types of eggs in the increasingly questioned basket of nuclear deterrence.