テロの恐怖と隣り合わせの今日、核兵器はかつてないほど重要な意味を持つようになりました。本書はその理由を解き明かすとともに、核兵器の成り立ちおよび抑止力としての政治的役割の概要を、客観的かつ冷静な視点から解説します。改訂新版には核兵器開発の歴史と冷戦終結後の削減への取り組みについて論じる新章を追加しました。広島・長崎を含む歴史から、私たちは何を学ぶべきか考察します。
  

• Describes the historical development of nuclear weapons and the policies they generated since the end of the Cold War
• Critically examines important and recurring questions about the role of nuclear weapons in international relations
• This new edition brings the story up to date with recent political developments and the emergence of potential new nuclear powers

   
Nuclear weapons have not been used in anger since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet even after the Cold War, the Bomb is still the greatest threat facing humankind. As President Bill Clinton's first secretary of defence, Les Aspin, put it: 'The Cold War is over, the Soviet Union is no more. But the post-Cold War world is decidedly not post-nuclear'. For all the efforts to reduce nuclear stockpiles, the Bomb is here to stay.
   
This Very Short Introduction looks at the science of nuclear weapons and how they differ from conventional weapons. Tracing the story of the nuclear bomb, Joseph Siracusa chronicles the race to acquire the H-bomb, a thermonuclear weapon with revolutionary implications; and the history of early arms control, nuclear deterrence, and non-proliferation. He also tracks the development of nuclear weapons from the origins of the Cold War in 1945 to the end of Moscow-dominated Communism in 1991, and examines the promise and prospect of missile defence, including Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars' and George W. Bush's National Missile Defence. This third edition includes a new chapter on the development of nuclear weapons and the policies they have generated since the end of the Cold War.