ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks at the arguments of one of the first, most vociferous and comprehensive critics of Western nuclear policy, the British physicist, PMS Blackett. It also looks at the efforts Britain made over the years to use arms control as a way of preventing the further decline in its status. Newspapers’ editorials profess their support for the arms control negotiations, but the process is inherently cautious, technical and undramatic. The media pay more attention to negotiations when they or the ensuing agreements fail. A leak occurred in an illegal Soviet biological weapons plant spreading anthrax and causing several deaths. The book argues that Western nations generally find it difficult to predict the behaviour of autocrats. The size of China’s population will decline and so will the rate of industrial expansion, and this may cause political instability.
