Stable at Zero: Maintaining a World Free of Nuclear Weapons

29 September 2011

Ward WilsonWard Wilson, Senior Fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies returned to address a British Pugwash Discussion Meeting at University College London.

Experts argue that a world without nuclear weapons would be inherently unstable. Ward Wilson rejected this contention. In a pragmatic analysis, he showed that if nuclear weapons were abolished today, such a world would be inherently stable. He argued that the problems confronting a potential cheater would be insurmountable, and much of the concern about instability comes from an inflated sense of the importance of nuclear weapons.

Read a summary (pdf)