ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The study of nuclear realism clearly serves a purpose today. As Hugh Gusterson has recently remarked in a comment on our historical repository in debating nuclear weapons, we have libraries filled with books about eminent scientists and iconic strategists. The recovery we have pursued in this book, however, begins from a thoroughly transnational and cross-disciplinary 'nuclear enlightenment'. Prominent students of the security imaginaries associated with nuclear weapons and the Cold War have pointed to strong analogies between that age and the contemporary War on Terror. The similarities are obviously worrying, but so are the differences. History is helpful, but it certainly will not save us. The ideas and critique advanced by nuclear realists can inspire activists, critics and theorists intent on tackling our current global crisis.
