Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World sets out to examine one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century: the future of nuclear weapons. Acknowledging the growing consensus that pushing nuclear weapons to the margins of world politics would represent the wisest political and moral choice for the United States, a stellar group of scholars has been assembled in this volume to analyze one solution to the problem: virtual nuclear arsenals. First proposed by Jonathan Schell in his 1984 book The Abolition , this option involves removing all nuclear weapons from operational status and placing them in a dismantled, 'virtual' condition. Essays by many of the world's top experts on arms control and international relations combine to offer the first detailed assessment of what may be the most promising and provocative idea in the field today. Thorough, balanced, and probing, Nuclear Weapons in a Transformed World opens the debate on a concept which could possibly determine the future of arms control and US policy.

Foreword - Introduction - PART 1: THE NOTION OF VIRTUAL ARSENALS; M.Mazarr - PART 2: ELEMENTS OF VIRTUAL DETERRENCE - Nuclear Doctrine; M.Brown - Command, Control, and Warning; B.Blair - Force Structure and Nuclear Infrastructure; P.Wilson - Verification and Monitoring; D.Kay - Reconstitution and Reassembly; M.Wheeler - Strategic Defenses; K.Payne - PART 3: CASE STUDIES - Established Nuclear Weapons States; M.Mazarr - Case Study: Russia; K.Sorokin - Case Study: China; T.Kim - Case Study: France; P.Gordon - Case Study: Britain; S.Croft - Threshold Weapons States; D.Hagerty - Virtual and Non-Nuclear Weapons States; B.Roberts - PART 4: REACTIONS - Reducing the Nuclear Danger; C.Horner - Virtual Arsenals: A French View; F.Heisbourg - Thoughts on Virtual Nuclear Arsenals; K.Waltz - Virtual Arsenals: A Russian View; A.Arbatov - Further on Reconstitution Issues; P.Garrity - Virtual Arsenals: A Japanese View; A.Watanabe - Virtual Visions: Past and Future; P.Zelikow - PART 5: VIRTUAL NUCLEAR ARSENALS: A SECOND LOOK; M.Mazarr