Strategic Stability: Contending Interpretations

Edited by Elbridge A. Colby, Michael S. Gerson.

February 2013

451 Pages

Brief Synopsis

What is strategic stability and why is it important? This edited collection offers the most current authoritative survey of this topic, which is central to U.S. strategy in the field of nuclear weapons and great power relations. A variety of authors and leading experts in the field of strategic issues and regional studies offer both theoretical and practical insights into the basic concepts associated with strategic stability, what implications these have for the United States, as well as key regions such as the Middle East, and perspectives on strategic stability in Russia and China. Readers will develop a deeper and more developed understanding of this consent from this engaging and informative work.

Contents

Foreword
Thomas C. Schelling

1. The Origins of Strategic Stability: The United States and the Threat of Surprise Attack
Michael S. Gerson

2. Defining Strategic Stability: Reconciling Stability and Deterrence
Elbridge Colby

3. The Geopolitics of Strategic Stability: Looking Beyond Cold Warriors and Nuclear Weapons
C. Dale Walton and Colin S. Gray

4. Reclaiming Strategic Stability
James M. Acton

5. Future Technology and Strategic Stability
Ronald F. Lehman II

6. Anything But Simple: Arms Control and Strategic Stability
Christopher A. Ford

7. Conventional Weapons, Arms Control, and Strategic Stability in Europe
Jeffrey D. McCausland

8. Russia and Strategic Stability
Matthew Rojansky

9. Placing a Renminbi Sign on Strategic Stability and Nuclear Reductions
Lora Saalman

10. Proliferation and Strategic Stability in the Middle East
Austin Long

About the Contributors

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