This book will illustrate that despite the variations of nuclear tensions during the Cold War periodfrom nuclear inception, to mass proliferation, to arms control treaties and détente, through to an intensification and reasonable conclusion (the INF Treaty and START being case points)the lessons over the last decade are quickly being unlearned. Given debates surrounding the emerging new Cold War, the deterioration of relations between Russia and the United States, and the concurrent challenges being made by key nuclear states in obfuscating arms control mechanisms, this book attempts to provide a much needed revisit into US presidential foreign policy during the Cold War. Across nine chapters, the monograph traces the United States' nuclear diplomacy and Presidential strategic thought, transitioning across the early period of Cold War arms racing through to the era's defining conclusion. It will reveal that notwithstanding the heightened periods when great power conflict seemed imminent, arms control fora and seminal agreements were able to be devised, implemented, and provided a needed base in bringing down the specter of a cataclysmic nuclear war, as well as improving bilateral relations. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of American foreign policy, diplomatic history, security studies and international relations.

Includes citations of new declassified documentary source material regarding the US role in the Cold War Written by two top scholars with expertise in nuclear security issues Aims to connect novel insights gleaned from the Cold War era with recent developments in contemporary geopolitics

Autorentext
Aiden Warren, Associate Professor of International Relations, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Joseph M. Siracusa, Professor of Political History and International Security, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Transition from Roosevelt to Truman.- 3. The Truman Administration and U.S. Nuclear Strategy.- 4. The End of the U.S. Nuclear Monopoly.- 5. Eisenhower and Emboldening the Nuclear Option.- 6. Kennedy's Nuclear Dilemma.- 7. The Johnson Years.- 8. The Search for Détente: Nixon and the Ford Transition.- 9. Carter's Lost Opportunity.- 10. The Tale of Two Terms: The Reagan Diplomatic Transition.