Abstract
This chapter spans Freedman’s earliest focus on nuclear weapons and his development of strategic scripts as an analytical tool over three decades later. It discusses the way in which opposing logics of disarmament and armament co-existed in relation to nuclear weapons. It deploys the notion of strategic scripts to explain the contradictions inherent in approaches to nuclear disarmament, developing the concept of strategic scripts as it does so. The notion of scripts can be used to explore and even to promote nuclear disarmament. Two scripts, one of ‘stable reduction’, the other of ‘disarmament’, each serve to frame thinking. These scripts and the interactions they generate facilitate understanding of the way in which opposite instinctive reactions and, stemming from these, scripts about nuclear weapons co-exist, but are fragile as either an analytical or a strategic tool.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Art of Creating Power |
| Subtitle of host publication | Freedman on Strategy |
| Editors | Benedict Wilson, James Gow |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Hurst and Co |
| Chapter | 16 |
| Pages | 291-307 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780190862763, 9780190872601 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781849045810 |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Apr 2017 |
Keywords
- Lawrence Freedman
- International relations
- Strategy
- Nuclear weapons
- Nuclear disarmament
- Arms control
- Deterrence