T. V. Paul

Teleglobe Raoul-Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies

Université du Québec à Montréal. Centre d'études des politiques étrangères et de sécurité

Thazha Varkey Paul

Universite du Quebec A Montreal Staff

With the end of the Cold War, nuclear non-proliferation has emerged as a central issue in international security relations. While most existing works on nuclear proliferation deal with the question of nuclear acquisition, T.V. Paul explains why some states – over 185 at present – have decided to forswear nuclear weapons even when they have the technological capability or potential capability to develop them, and why some states already in possession of nuclear arms choose to dismantle them. In Power versus Prudence Paul develops a prudential-realist model, arguing that a nation's national nuclear choices depend on specific regional security contexts: the non-great power states most likely to forgo nuclear weapons are those in zones of low and moderate conflict, while nations likely to acquire such capability tend to be in zones of high conflict and engaged in protracted conflicts and enduring rivalries. He demonstrates that the choice to forbear acquiring nuclear weapons is also a function of the extent of security interdependence that states experience with other states, both allies and adversaries. He applies the comparative case study method to pairs of states with similar characteristics – Germany/Japan, Canada/Australia, Sweden/Switzerland, Argentina/Brazil – in addition to analysing the nuclear choices of South Africa, Ukraine, South Korea, India, Pakistan, and Israel. Paul concludes by questioning some of the prevailing supply side approaches to non-proliferation, offering an explication of the security variable and its linking of nuclear proliferation with protracted conflicts and enduring rivalries. Power versus Prudence will be of interest to students of international relations, policy-makers, policy analysts, and the informed public concerned with the questions of nuclear weapons, non-proliferation, and disarmament. T.V. Paul is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, McGill University. He has published several books and numerous articles on international security and the politics of nuclear weapons, including Asymmetric Conflicts: War Initiation by Weaker Powers, The Absolute Weapon Revisited: Nuclear Arms and the Emerging International Order, and International Order and the Future of World Politics.

Why Nations Forgo Nuclear Weapons

Power Versus Prudence

Brian J. R. Stevenson

Post-war Canadian foreign policy has been characterized by two enduring themes - an ongoing commitment to multilateralism on the one hand, and a substantial commitment to continentalism on the other. In the early 1970s the post-war structures for international politics and economics entered a period that led to a dramatic transformation based on the relative decline of the United States (punctuated by the end of the cold war), the rise of economic interdependence and the new internationalism, and the emergence of citizen-centered foreign policy. These three factors have had a substantial impact on both Canada's role in the world and its relationships with its main political and economic partners.

A Foreign Policy Analysis, 1968-199

Canada, Latin America, and the New Internationalism

Teleglobe Raoul-Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies

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