ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Israel's motivations to acquire nuclear weapons from the systemic, state and individual levels of analysis. This is followed by an analysis of the relationship between war-probability, the need for a nuclear deterrent capability, and its nuclear weapons acquisition. The chapter examines the non-traditional nuclear deterrence that Israel seems to have pursued. Israel, one of the principal countries in the Middle East, has maintained an opaque nuclear posture since the late 1960s. Scientific achievement in Israel has been extensive in the nuclear area. Israel had the ability to assemble nuclear weapons in the 1960s when China, had just completed its own nuclear testing. As a small state in the Middle East, Israel has been trying to survive among its Middle Eastern adversaries. With such a geopolitical situation, seeking regional hegemony through the possession of nuclear weapons is not realistic. A regional hegemony requires not only military domination, but economic, geographic, and demographic control as well.
