ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses existing approaches to nuclear possession and disarmament in realist thought and scholarly critiques of realism, with various main purposes in mind. Whilst pessimistic regarding the prospects of nuclear disarmament, defensive realism is thus optimistic than offensive realism when it comes to international cooperation, promoting the idea that uncertainty can be overcome if the incentives and motivations of states and their leaders are understood. An alternative to the pessimism of offensive realism has been developed by authors such as Charles Glaser and Robert Jervis and is often termed defensive realism. Differences occur amongst authors advocating cooperation with disarmament when it comes to the emphasis placed on the process by which a balance of interests—rather than a balance of power between the major states—might be achieved. Institutional democratisation develops the domestic politics model in several important ways. Robert Dahl provides a more explicitly democratic approach to the problem of nuclear possession in his Controlling Nuclear Weapons: Democracy versus Guardianship.
