ABSTRACT
This chapter explores justifications for France retaining the bomb and arguments against disarmament made by prominent advocates of nuclear possession in relation to relevant views on the origins of the Cold War. It assesses the explanatory power of institutional democratisation regarding the causes and consequences of French nuclear possession and disarmament by developing the domestic politics model. In doing so, official justifications for France’s nuclear status are challenged and the limitations in the mainstream and realist literature’s explanation of French nuclear politics identified. A brief exploration of critical perspectives on the Cold War and French global strategy is presented to identify historical approaches that support the claims and ideas of institutional democratisation. In terms of recent nuclear politics and the prospects for disarmament, Presidents Sarkozy and Hollande reiterated the need for nuclear weapons, the former describing them as the ‘nation’s life insurance policy’ and the latter as both a ‘protection against all threats’ and ‘an element that fosters peace’.
