The Sheathed Sword

Description

After a brief interlude following the Cold War, nuclear weapons have regained their prominent place in world affairs. Yet our current nuclear age will not be a replay of the Cold War. New technologies, changing political contexts and the death of old arms-control agreements mean that today’s nuclear strategists have to navigate unchartered waters filled with fresh perils. Unfortunately, the consequences of failure in the nuclear world can be catastrophic. The immediate imperative today is to lower the possibility of nuclear weapons use during a crisis or conflict involving nuclear powers. While deliberate or pre-emptive nuclear use is less likely, the rising danger of our time is that nuclear weapons will be employed due to some combination of miscommunication, misjudgment, misperception and sheer accident.
The Sheathed Sword: From Nuclear Brink to No First Use is a collection of essays by leading scholars and practitioners on the role of nuclear weapons in global security. The contributors examine how individual states view nuclear weapons, the devastating effects of nuclear war on the world’s climate and the issues around nuclear no first use. They also debate the feasibility and desirability of a global no-first-use (GNFU) agreement.

Lt General (Dr) Prakash Menon is the Director of the Strategic Studies Programme at the Takshashila Institution. He is also Professor Emeritus at Trans Disciplinary University (TDU), Bengaluru and Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. Lt General Menon has a PhD from Madras University for his thesis, ‘Limited War and Nuclear Deterrence in the Indo-Pak Context’. He was appointed by the union cabinet as a member of an expert group for the creation of the Indian National Defence University. He has been decorated with three distinguished service awards-PVSM, AVSM and VSM.
Aditya Ramanathan is a research analyst with the Takshashila Institution. A journalist by training, he has previously worked at Mint and as a freelancer. He has also researched and written on colonial-era Indian military history. Aditya has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. At Takhsashila, he works on issues relating strategic affairs and foreign policy. His current areas of focus include nuclear weapons policy and India’s evolving posture towards to the Arctic region.

Foreword by Ambassador Shivshankar Menon
Introduction Part I: Understanding the Role of Nuclear Weapons in Global Security
Chapter 1: Superpower and World Order: Colin S. Gray
Chapter 2: The Seven Deadly Sins of Nuclear Strategy Dogmata: Lt General (Dr) Prakash Menon
Chapter 3: Is Nuclear Deterrence a Cost-Effective Policy? Bruno Tertrais
Chapter 4: Nuclear Weapons and the Global Security Environment: Rajesh Basrur
Chapter 5: Nuclear Weapons, Geopolitics, Emerging Technologies, and Oppositional Nationalism: Sadia Tasleem
Part II: The Uses and Perils of Nuclear Weapons
Chapter 6: Nuclear Coercion: Evaluating Insights from Academic Scholarship: Walter C. Ladwig III
Chapter 7: Asia Treads the Nuclear Path, Unaware That Self-Assured Destruction Would Result from Nuclear War: Owen B. Toon, Alan Robock, Michael Mills and Lili Xia
Part III: The Dilemmas of No First Use
Chapter 8: It’s Time for a US No-First-Use Nuclear Policy: Nina Tannenwald
Chapter 9: The Purposes of Nuclear Weapons: Rajesh Rajagopalan
Chapter 10: Nuclear No First Use in Theory and Practice: Keir Lieber and Daryl Press
Part IV: States, Nuclear Weapons, and the Prospects for Global No First Use
Chapter 11: US Nuclear Strategy, No First Use, and the Return of Great Power Competition: Matthew Kroenig
Chapter 12: Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine Journey: Petr Topychkanov
Chapter 13: Global No First Use: Less Possible, More Necessary? Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine Journey: Damien Cusey and Olivier de France
Chapter 14: China’s NFU as a Litmus Test for GFU: Lora Saalman
Chapter 15: China’s No First Use Policy and the Prospect of the Global No First Use Treaty: A Chinese Perspective: Zhong Ai
Chapter 16: The Desirability and Feasibility of Global No First Use: An Indian Perspective: Manpreet Sethi
Chapter 17: Israel and a ‘No First Use’ Declaration: Emily B. Landau
Chapter 18: Deterrence Unsheathed: Pakistan and the Prospects of Global No First Use: Brigadier (Retd) Feroz Hassan Khan
Chapter 19: No First Use Policy of a New Nuclear Weapons State: The Case of North Korea: Jina Kim
Chapter 20: Tokyo’s Reluctance over NDU, For Now: Hirofumi Tosaki
Chapter 21: On Turkey’s Stance Towards Nuclear Weapons and Global No First Use: Mustafa Kibaroglu

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