We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2009
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ARMAMENTS
Wars are fought with weapons. If there were no weapons, presumably there would be no wars. However, if some people have weapons and some do not, then those with weapons can impose their will on those without. Put rather crudely, this is a crucial dilemma of the way the world is run, without any easy or obvious ways out of it. The relationship between armaments and war is still controversial, though research is being done which is beginning to shed some light on the problem.
Crudely there are two polar views about the relationship between arms levels (not arms races) and war. The first is that the crucial thing about arms levels between two states or alliances is that they should be balanced, so that there is, in Bull's terminology (1977), a simple balance of power. In its extreme form this can hold that the level of arms is unimportant; what matters is the balance. This is the view held by many traditional strategists. The other view is that what is important is the total quantities of arms held by the two countries, where the more there are, the greater the risk of war. The distribution between the two is unimportant. Richardson held this view, and it was oddly one of the few propositions which he asserted without testing.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
