Review: International Security: Alternative Security
| Date | 01 December 1991 |
| Published date | 01 December 1991 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209104600413 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS/INTERNATIONAL
SECURITY
733
West
relations,
this
book does
provide
such
a
reader
with
a
convincing
approach
to
the
complex
patterns
inherent
in
American
national
secu-
rity
policy.
Michele Lyons/Royal
Military
College of
Canada
ALTERNATIVE
SECURITY
Living
without nuclear
deterrence
Edited
by
Burns
H.
Weston
Boulder
co:
Westview,
1990,
XVi,
28
3pp,
US$
4 5
.oo
cloth,
US$1
4.95
paper
Despite
its
subtitle,
this book
of
essays
is
largely
about
a
possible
future
not
without nuclear
deterrence
but
with
less
emphasis
(preferably
much
less
emphasis)
on
nuclear
threats.
The
eight
contributors
are
interested
in
ways
of
denuclearizing
American
strategies
for
the
pursuit
of
security.
Most
of
their
arguments,
which
are
implicitly
or
explicitly
critical
of
Washington's
muscular
and
expansive
approach
to
deter-
rence,
lead
towards
a
position
of minimum nuclear
deterrence.
The
prominence
of
nuclear
weapons
can
and
should
be
much
diminished.
Future
strategies
for
security
should
emphasize confidence-building,
risk
reduction, information-sharing,
non-offensive
defences,
recipro-
cal
restraints
on
military
force,
and
other
such
co-operative
and
collab-
orative
activities.
The
goal
of
the
leading
nation-states
ought
to
be
a
new global
security
regime,
highlighting
the
role of
international
law.
Alternative
Security
includes
some
sensible if
not
especially
original
scepticism
about the
orthodoxies
of deterrence
and
nuclear
peace;
and
it
offers
numerous
concrete
proposals
for
bringing
about
a
less
threatening
international
security
regime. Attention
is
also
paid
to
broader
issues
of
security,
including
the
integrity of
the
natural
envi-
ronment,
economic
development,
and distributive
justice.
Robert
C.
Johansen,
in
a
thoughtful concluding
chapter,
attempts
to
formulate
some
guiding
principles
for
a
demilitarized
world
order,
beyond
even
one of
minimum
nuclear
deterrence.
As
he
observes:
'If
the
industrial-
ized
countries
with
nuclear weapons
claim
...
a
right
to
keep their
weapons indefinitely,
they
cannot
expect
other
less
secure
and
more
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