Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism - Softcover

Finnis, John; Boyle Jr., Joseph; Grisez, Germain

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198247915 ISBN 13: 9780198247913

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1988

Synopsis

Providing a rigorous and objective ethical analysis of nuclear deterrence, this book discusses such issues as the Soviet menace, possible holocaust, and strategic imperatives. At the same time, the authors unmask types of deterrence that they perceive essentially as moral evasions, maintaining that deterrence cannot be bluffing, pure counterforce, the lesser (or greater) evil, or a step towards disarmament. Concluding that deterrence is unjustifiable, this book examines the new questions of conscience that this raises for us all.

About this title

About the Author:

John Finnis is at University College, Oxford. Joseph Boyle is at University of Toronto.

Review:

"An important book [that] could change the teaching of the Catholic Church on the morality of nuclear deterrence."--America

"The most important contribution so far to the debate over the ethics of nuclear deterrence."--New York Review of Books

"An excellent, sophisticated contribution, perhaps the best that has been set out among the many recent books on this difficult but crucial subject."--American Political Science Review

"The aspects of deterrence that are often said to give rise to moral paradoxes are discussed with greater rigor, imagination, and thoroughness than in any previous work....Deserve[s] and will repay careful study."--Ethics

"Exceptionally important."--The Review of Politics

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0198247915
• ISBN 13: 9780198247913
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448