Abstract
There are instances in which states provided technologies that risked abetting nuclear or missile capability. In none of these cases was there an unambiguous offer or request for technologies leading to a viable strategic capability. This soft balancing or soft nuclear sharing category includes a multitude of sharing cases, whose analysis is complicated by the difficulty of securely linking donors and recipients and identifying political intentions in this phenomenon.1 Some recipients of soft sharing succeed in accumulating an impressive nuclear infrastructure. The treatment below covers those cases whose duration, scale or consequence is worth examination for their potential overall impact on nuclear proliferation in the international system. Most of the recipient cases are states seeking not an immediate nuclear breakout, but the underlying option for a future contingency. In addition, in all of the cases the recipient either does not benefit from an extended nuclear deterrent or does not have permanent confidence in the one it has. The principal cases of soft sharing are US-Japan, US-Israel, US and USSR-India, India-Iran, Russo-Soviet soft sharing and Chinese soft sharing.
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Notes
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© 2014 Julian Schofield
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Schofield, J. (2014). Soft Nuclear Sharing. In: Strategic Nuclear Sharing. Global Issues Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298454_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298454_13
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