Western European Nuclear Forces; a British, a French, and an American View
Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1995. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. xi, [1], 85, [3] pages. Footnotes. Minor cover wear and soiling. This was prepared for the United States Air Force under Project Air Force. Discusses rationales for the continued existence of West European nuclear forces. Chapter One by Nicholas Witney is on The British Nuclear Deterrent--A European Vocation; Chapter Two by Olivier Debouzy is entitled A European Vocation for the French Nuclear Deterrent?; Chapter Three by Robert A. Levine is entitled An American View. Nick Witney is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. His topics of focus range from the European Security and Defence Policy to the Middle East Peace Process. Witney previously served as the first chief executive of the European Defence Agency in Brussels. Olivier Debouzy is a French lawyer and defence analyst and is a member International Institute Strategic Studies. Dr. Levine graduated from Harvard College in 1950 and received his Ph.D. in economics from Yale in 1957. In 1956, Dr. Levine moved to Los Angeles. From 1974 to 1975, Dr. Levine returned to New York to serve as President of the New York City RAND Institute. A longtime employee of the RAND Corporation, Dr. Levine also served in the Office of Economic Opportunity as Chief Planner for the War on Poverty from 1965 to 1968 and as Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office from 1975 to 1979. Each of the three papers that make up this report focuses on the question: What is the best rationale for the continued existence of the West European--British and French--nuclear forces in the post-cold war period? the three analyses are not symmetrical. The British and French papers discuss the specifics of their own forces, and in doing so come up with similar rationales, each of which invokes what both papers term a "European Vocation" for the two forces operating in increasingly close cooperation with one another. The American paper is based on a view of U.S. interests in these forces which values their retention but questions the European Vocation as the primary premise. The three papers share a common structure, each provided a description of the past--the French paper with a more thoroughgoing description of a more complex past--as a basis for examining future alternatives. They also share the premise that it is in the real interests of not only Britain ad France, but also of the Untied States and international stability, that the British and French retain their forces. That is why the central issue throughout the report is not the real need, but rather the rationale for the forces, the set of arguments that will convince the electorates of these two countries that their real interest dictate retention of their nuclear forces. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Forces, Deterrence, Post-Cold War, Strategic Forces, Franco-British Cooperation, National Security, Regional Security, Collective Security
ISBN: 0833016636
[Book #84082]
Price: $125.00