Thinking about Peace and War

Proposals for the prevention of war are as old as war itself. Yet this is the first book to offer a coherent, intellectual framework for the study of such proposals, providing the historical background necessary for a clear understanding of the current nuclear debate. Arguing that much of the patternless debate about peace proposals can be reduced to disagreements about the basic ideologies of international relations, Ceadel presents his own framework for studying the debate, examines why support for these ideologies has varied from country to country and at different points in history, and considers the special problems posed by the threat of nuclear war. Ceadel disentangles three strategic dimensions of the nuclear issue--the global balance between the U.S. and Russia, the European crisis, and Britain's stand--and analyzes the cases for and against nuclear deterrence.