Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King's College London, UK. He was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997 and was a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. His most recent books include
Strategy: A History
(2015) and
The Future of War: A History
(2017).


Jeffrey Michaels is Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies at King's College London, UK

Originally published in 1981, the leading text on nuclear strategy has been updated and completely revised for its fourth edition

The new edition benefits greatly from important contemporary scholarship and newly-available archival material on the history of nuclear strategy

A new global perspective includes more material on the Israeli, Indian, Pakistani, North Korean, Iraqi and Iranian nuclear programmes

Provides a critical commentary on all positions from abolitionists to nuclear war-fighters

1. The Arrival of the Bomb.- 2. The Strategy of Hiroshima.- 3. Offence and Defence.- 4. Aggression and Retaliation.- 5. Strategy for an Atomic Monopoly.- 6. Strategy for an Atomic Stalemate.- 7. Massive Retaliation.- 8. Limited Objectives.- 9. Limited Means.- 10. The Importance of Being First.- 11. Sputnik and the Soviet Threat.- 12. Soviet Strategy after Stalin.- 13. The Technological Arms Race.- 14. New Sources of Strategy.- 15. The Strategy of Stable Conflict.- 16. Disarmament to Arms Control.- 17. Operational Nuclear Strategy.-18. Khrushchev's Second-Best Deterrent.- 19. Defending Europe.- 20. No Cities.- 21. Assured Destruction.- 22. Britain's 'Independent' Nuclear Deterrent.- 23. France and the Credibility of Nuclear Guarantees.- 24. A NATO Nuclear Force.- 25. The Unthinkable Weapon.- 26. China's Paper Tiger.- 27. The Soviet Approach to Deterrence.- 28. The McNamara Legacy.- 29. Salt, Parity and the Critique Of Mad.- 30. Actions and Reactions.- 31. Selective Options.- 32. ICBM Vulnerability.- 33. The Rise of Anti-Nuclear Protest.- 34. Strategic Defences.- 35. Soviet Doctrine from Brezhnev to Gorbachev.- 36. The End of the Cold War.- 37. Mutual Assured Safety.- 38. Elimination or Marginalization.- 39. The Second Nuclear Age.- 40. The Nuclear War on Terror.- 41. Proliferation: The Middle East and the Pacific.- 42. The Return of Great Power Politics.- 43. Primacy and Maximum Deterrence.- 44. Can There Be A Nuclear Strategy?.