Nuclear Age in the Middle East

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

The advent of nuclear weapons in 1945 marked the beginning of the nuclear age. Characterized as “the absolute weapon”, the quest for a nuclear bomb has been the core of the study of international security in general and the theory of International relations in particular. Scholars have produced a large and contradictory literature on the motivations for nuclear proliferation and the impact of nuclear weapons on states’ behavior, namely in terms of war and escalations dynamics. Guided by a Realist paradigm, and the line of argumentation of the “rational deterrence theory”, this course will apply the “security model” to analyzing and critically investigating crucial questions related to the nuclear age in the Middle East. At the core of these issues is to identify the very meaning of a “nuclear decision” in terms of “exploring”, “pursuing”, and “producing” a nuclear weapons program. Moreover, it addresses the cases of “nuclear latency” and “strategic hedging”. The decision to proliferate suggests a thorough reading of states’ evaluation of the very utility of nuclear weapons, namely in terms of “deterrence”, “coercion” and “compellence”. Such a trichotomy is inextricably linked to another debate about the strategic value of nuclear weapons, namely in terms of three schools of thought: nuclear revolution; risk manipulation, escalation, and limited war; and nuclear irrelevance. In addition, the debate over the impact of nuclear weapons on “general stability”, and “crisis stability” will be analyzed.