ABSTRACT
The management, resolution, transformation, and termination of conflicts have been studied by conflict scholars, and the motivations for developing nuclear weapons and the implications for global or regional stability have been investigated by proliferation scholars. These have been discussed in chapters 1 and 2 respectively. As stated in the previous two chapters, this study moves beyond these problems to address what the acquisition of nuclear weapons means for the life of a protracted conflict. The central objective is to understand when and under what conditions a protracted conflict moves to a level of almost indefinite protraction. Why a protracted conflict becomes intractable is analyzed in this chapter.
