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Title: Power Versus Prudence : Why Nations Forgo Nuclear Weapons by T.V. Paul ISBN: 0-7735-2086-4 Publisher: McGill-Queens University Press Pub. Date: August, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $70.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Scrubbed Liberal Argument Repacked as "Prudential Realism"
Comment: T.V. Paul says he's going to combine the best insights of realism and liberalism in explaining why so many states have not acquired nuclear weapons. Basically, he argues that states in low and medium conflict zones are less likely to want nuclear weapons because they pursue other forms of power, such as economic and diplomatic. States in high conflict zones, however, are more likely to seek nuclear weapons.

Now, if you ask me, this is a decent explanation, except that it hardly qualifies as "realist." Instead, it sounds like an application of the "core-periphery" argument advocated by Goldgeier -- within the liberal core, the norms of peace and economic growth will prevail, but in the periphery, the real-politik logic continues to rule. This argument is, by the way, always classified as "liberal" -- definitely not "realist."

Hence, Paul's factual explanations are decent, but his theoretical ones are sadly lacking. For a thorough examination of this type of argumentation, see the article "Is Anyone Still a Realist?" in International Organization.

Rating: 5
Summary: An Outstanding Book!
Comment: An outstanding book that explains the puzzle of so many technologically-capable countries forbearing nuclear possession. Very few previous studies on this subject have developed a cogent theoretical model as this book does. Paul develops a 'prudential-realist model' which has implications for international relations theory and foreign policy analysis. Extremeley well-written. The case studies reveal new data on the past search for nuclear weapons by countries such as Sweden, Switzerland and Australia.