ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter sets the stage for the more descriptive and analytical chapters that follow. The chapter provides a roadmap of alternative conceptual perspectives or “regimes” that have been put forward by scholars, policy analysts, and other military thinkers. The regimes are not competitors for scholarly envy. They are alternative perspectives for study and candidate bases for policy prescriptions in nuclear strategy, arms control, and disarmament. They also help to provide a force field against reliance by students or scholars on single-diagnosis remedies for nuclear danger.
