The politics and strategy of nuclear weapons in the Middle East : opacity, theory, and reality, 1960-1991 : an Israeli perspective / Shlomo Aronson with the assistance of Oded Brosh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aronson, Shlomo, 1936-

Contributor:

Brosh, Oded.

Series:

SUNY Series in Israeli Studies

SUNY series in Israeli studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear weapons--Middle East.

Nuclear weapons.

Nuclear weapons--Israel.

Nuclear nonproliferation.

Middle East--Military policy.

Middle East.

Israel--Military policy.

Israel.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (415 pages)

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Based on research from an array of American, Arab, British, French, German, and Israeli sources, this book provides a nuclear history of the world's most explosive region. Most significantly, it gives an exposition of Israel's acquisition and political use, or nonuse, of nuclear weapons as a central factor of its foreign policy in the 1960-1991 period. In stressing the factor of nuclear weapons, the author highlights an often-neglected aspect of Israeli security policy.This is the first interpretation of the historical development of nuclear doctrine in the Middle East that assesses the strategic implications of opacity-Israel's use of suggestion, rather than open acknowledgment, that it possesses nuclear weapons. Aronson discusses the strategic thinking of Israel, the Arab countries, the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and other countries and connects Israeli strategies for war, peace, territories, and the political economy with the use of nuclear deterrence.The author approaches the development of Israeli doctrines on nuclear weapons and defense in general within a large matrix that includes the United States; Israeli perceptions of Arab history, culture, and psychology; and Israeli perceptions of Israel's own history, culture, and psychology. He also deals with Arab perceptions of Israel's nuclear program and with Arab and Iranian incentives to go nuclear. In addition, he discusses at length the importance of nuclear factors in the conduct of the Persian Gulf War and examines the implications of the decline of the former Soviet Union for arms control and peace in the Middle East.

Contents:

Strategy, history, and politics

The American paradigm and early efforts to limit proliferation

The Israeli paradigm: American controlled opacity?

American intervention

The 1967 war

The road to the Yom Kippur War

The walls of Jericho

Sadat's peace

The doctrine of opaque nuclear monopoly

Lebanon and the demise of the Begin-Sharon Cabinet

From Lebanon to the Intifada

The rebirth of Pan-Arabism?

India, Pakistan, North Korea, Algeria, Iran, and the rest.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 357-369) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780791495346

0791495345