home > by publication type > op-eds > Cold War Lessons for Today's Nuclear Disarmament Debate
Email
| Author: | Charles D. Ferguson, Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology |
|---|
August 20, 2009
Atlantic-Community.org
During the last years of the Cold War, when I was a junior U.S. naval officer on a ballistic missile submarine, I learned lessons about nuclear weapons and political change that convinced me that nuclear abolition is admirable. But it will take considerable effort to achieve, and next major steps will require addressing bureaucratic inertia on nuclear targeting policy, linking conventional and nuclear arms control, and reducing the prestige of possessing nuclear weapons by, for example, encouraging Great Britain, the nuclear weapon state in the forefront of nuclear disarmament, to show a clear path toward its relinquishment of these weapons.
In late November 1989, I attended the U.S. Navy's school on nuclear weapons targeting. Without revealing classified information, I can say here that I was shocked to discover that the main mission of my submarine was to target Eastern Europe, which was then part of the Warsaw Pact. Our targeting assignment especially included East Germany. What I remember most clearly was that none of my fellow officers at the school were discussing the fundamental changes sweeping East Germany-the Berlin Wall had been knocked down earlier that month-other Eastern European countries, and the Soviet Union.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.