This volume examines the causes and consequences of nuclear postures and nonproliferation policies.

The real-world importance of nuclear weapons has led to the production of a voluminous scholarly literature on the causes and consequences of nuclear weapons proliferation. Missing from this literature, however, is a more nuanced analysis that moves beyond a binary treatment of nuclear weapons possession, to an exploration of how different nuclear postures and nonproliferation policies may influence the proliferation of nuclear weapons and subsequent security outcomes. This volume addresses this deficit by focusing on the causes and consequences of nuclear postures and nonproliferation policies. It is the aim of this book to advance the development of a new empirical research agenda that brings systematic research methods to bear on new dimensions of the nuclear weapons phenomenon. Prior to the contributions in this volume, there has been little evidence to suggest that nuclear postures and policies have a meaningful impact on the spread of nuclear weapons or security outcomes. This book brings together a new generation of scholars, advancing innovative theoretical positions, and performing quantitative tests using original data on nuclear postures, nonproliferation policies, and WMD proliferation. Together, the chapters in this volume make novel theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to the field of nuclear weapons proliferation.

This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, international relations and security studies.

This edited volume examines the causes and consequences of nuclear postures and nonproliferation policies.

1. Introduction: Nuclear Posture, Nonproliferation Policy, and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons, Erik Gartzke, Matthew Kroenig and Neil Narang PART I: NONPROLIFERATION POLICIES AND THE SPREAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS 2. Force or Friendship? Explaining Great Power Nonproliferation Policy, Matthew Kroenig 3. Nuclear Strategy, Nonproliferation, and the Causes of Foreign Nuclear Deployments, Matthew Fuhrmannand Todd Sechser 4. Security Guarantees and Allied Nuclear Proliferation, Philipp C.Bleek and Eric B.Lorber 5. Security Commitments and Nuclear Proliferation, Dan Reiter 6. Talking Peace, Making Weapons: IAEA Technical Cooperation and Nuclear Proliferation, Robert Brown and Jeffrey M.Kaplow 7. Making It Personal: Regime Type and Nuclear Proliferation, Christopher Way and Jessica Weeks PART II: NUCLEAR POSTURES AND THE SPREAD OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS 8. The Determinants of Nuclear Force Structure, Erik Gartzke,Jeffrey M.Kaplow and Rupal Mehta 9. Poor Man's Atomic Bomb? Exploring the Relationship between ''Weapons of Mass Destruction', Michael Horowitz and Neil Narang PART III: NUCLEAR POSTURES AND THE CONSEQUNCES OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS 10. What Does It Take to Deter? Regional Power Nuclear Postures and International Conflict, Vipin Narang11. Conventional Wisdom? The Effect of Nuclear Proliferation on Armed Conflict, David Sobek,Dennis M. Foster and Samuel B. Robison 12. Questioning the Effect of Nuclear Weapons on Conflict, Nicholas L. Miller and Mark Bell PART IV: CONCLUSION 13. Conclusion, Jacob Aronson and Paul Huth