Book review : Small state behaviour in strategic and intelligence studies

Abstract

Nuclear weapons have attracted long-standing scholarly interest. They have been studied from various perspectives, such as their impact on the international system, their role in shaping foreign and security policy, and their proliferation since 1945. Patrick C. Coaty’s book adopts the last viewpoint and looks at the decisions that affected elite decisions to acquire nuclear weapons. As the title suggests, the book aims to contribute to several streams of scholarly literature, namely strategic studies, small states scholarship, and IR theory. Composed of a comprehensive theoretical chapter and five empirical chapters, besides the introduction and conclusion, it analyses the strategic thinking behind nuclear proliferation. The book draws two conclusions, one analytical and one policy-oriented. Proliferation, it argues, is a result of domestic elites’ efforts to increase their international legitimacy. Second, it offers a policy recommendation along the classic neorealist lines: the safest way to prevent war is to proliferate nuclear weapons as much as possible so that conflict becomes too costly for everybody.