ABSTRACT
In an environmentally fragile age where nuclear and non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction may be grasped at almost any moment by many different nations, the United States cannot maintain its own security while ignoring or even inadvertently increasing the insecurity of other societies. The prospects for benefits from larger wars are even bleaker; the likely destructiveness of major nuclear combat to one’s own nation, one’s allies, and the global environment cannot be justified by any conceivable political objectives. Both the US and Soviet presidents have said that nuclear war has no utility, can have no winner, and must never be fought. The proliferation of non-nuclear weapons of mass destruction, especially chemical and biological weapons, proceeds at a quickened pace. The overall risks of nuclear proliferation, which attend any global posture less stringent than total abolition, exceed the low risk that any militarily use secreting of nuclear weapons could occur without detection in a gradually demilitarizing world.
