ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Britain as a case study to highlight the central dilemma with which many states acquiring nuclear weapons have had to struggle. In the Second World War, Britain, faced with the possibility of defeat and the dangers of Germany acquiring an atomic capability, decided to embark on a search for an atomic weapon of its own, before collaborating closely with the United States. After the war, cut off from cooperation with the US, the British government was faced with the dilemma of developing and maintaining a nuclear deterrent force or refraining from doing so in the hope that others would follow her example and prevent further proliferation. Statesmen at the time, and since, concluded that, while proliferation posed dangers to UK national security they had insufficient trust in the working of the international system to justify unilateral nuclear disarmament. At the same time, Britain played a significant role in efforts to achieve the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 and other non-proliferation efforts since. This has led to criticisms of hypocrisy from some non-nuclear nations. Successive British governments have argued, however, that priority will continue to be given to maintaining a nuclear deterrent capability in a dangerous world, until the time that effective international agreements are in place to achieve a global elimination of nuclear weapons.
