Book review: Nuclear reactions: How nuclear-armed states behave
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020221097994 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Though Italians tended to blame the great power politics of 1919 for their mutilated
victory, Italy’sperennial probl ems of money shortages, limited access to resources, and
decision-making errors ultimately prevented it from maximizing its imperial potential.
Wilcox makes an important contribution to advancing this older school of thought by
bringing to the fore the long-neglected role of empire in the Italian wartime experience.
Mark S. Bell.
Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021. 234 pp. $26.95 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-5017-5416-5
Reviewed by: Mark Haichin, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Ottawa, ON, Canada
International Relations scholars and foreign policy practitioners have both debated at
length how nuclear weapons influence the foreign policy of states that acquire them.
This debate is hardly new, with politicians in the 1960s expressing similar concerns
about the emboldening of nuclear-armed China as those warning about potential Iranian
aggression in the present. Similarly, states have expressed concern over allies choosing
increased independence after developing their own nuclear arsenals—and potentially
being less accommodating to their former partners in the process. However, existing
theories have proven somewhat limited, often due to their exclusive focus on change in
conventional military aggression. They fail to account for variation among states as a
result. In Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave, Mark S. Bell makes a
compelling contribution to this debate by advancing a novel theory of how foreign
policy is influenced by the possession of nuclear weapons, testing it with well-
researched case studies.
Bell’s work immediately stands apart by accounting for historical variation from the
outset. Rather than the one-size-fits-all approach of other theories, such as the nuclear
relation argument that nuclear weapons promote peaceful behaviour, he uses historical
evidence to show variation in the behavioural changes of nuclear states (4). Bell’s
theory, dubbed “nuclear opportunism,”states that “nuclear weapons can facilitate a
broad range of foreign policy behaviours that states may find attractive”(5). For a given
state, the attractiveness of these behaviours—ranging from aggression and expan-
sionism to bolstering alliances and steadfastness against coercion and revisionism—
will vary according to its strategic circumstances and political priorities (5–7). In short,
Bell argues that nuclear weapons do not change state preferences or goals, but instead
serve as a means for advancing their existing objectives. To support this, he draws on
archival research and interviews with retired political and military elites to study
changes in foreign policy behaviour among three case studies: the United Kingdom
(UK), South Africa, and the United States (US).
Book Reviews 149
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