| Publication |
2002.
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| Description |
133-148
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| Summary/Abstract |
In early 2002, the Bush administration's Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) was unveiled officially and through leaks of confidential portions to the press. The release provoked immediate controversy. Yet supporters of the NPR have oversold its benefits while its critics have exaggerated its dangers. The NPR is neither a transformational nuclear strategy nor a dangerous path to nuclear armageddon. What is striking about the document is not so much the bold new directions that it charts, but its tinkering with policies that it claims to have rejected. This suggests that a great deal of the public and international response has been shaped as much by context as content. In the near-term, the most serious consequences of the NPR are the diplomatic and geopolitical problems it causes for America's standing and image in the world, rather than its direct effects on international security and the prospects for war and peace.
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