Includes bibliography and index.

Contents:The arrival of the bomb -- The strategy of Hiroshima -- Offence and defence -- Aggression and retaliation -- Strategy for an atomic monopoly -- Strategy for an atomic stalemate -- Massive retaliation -- Limited objectives -- Limited means -- The importance of being first -- Sputnik and the soviet threat -- Soviet strategy after stalin -- The technological arms race -- New sources of strategy -- The strategy of stable conflict -- Disarmament to arms control -- Operational nuclear strategy-- Khrushchev's second- best deterrent -- Defending Europe -- No cities -- Assured destruction -- Britain's independent nuclear deterrent -- France and the credibility of nuclear guarantees -- A Nato nuclear force -- The unthinkable weapon -- China's paper tiger -- The Soviet approach to deterrence -- The McNamara legacy -- Salt, Parity and the critique of MAD -- Actions and reactions -- Selective options -- ICBM vulnerability -- The rise of anti - nuclear protest -- Strategic defences -- Soviet doctrine from Benzhnev to Gorbachev -- The end of the cold war -- Mutual assured safety -- Elimination or maginalization -- The second nuclear age -- The nuclear war on terror -- Proliferation: the middle east and the pacific -- The return of great power politics -- Primary and maximum deterrence -- Can there be a nuclear strategy? -- Bibliography -- Index.