Nuclear Weapons Article Analysis
Nuclear Weapons Article Analysis
Essay 1 – Theory Critique Essay
This essay is 2000 words,
The purpose of this essay is to show your comprehension of the key theoretical perspectives in an applied context (this year, we have selected nuclear weapons).
Undertake a comparative critique of TWO of the following articles:
– Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, and William H. Riker. 1982. An assessment of the merits of selective nuclear proliferation. Journal of Conflict Resolution 26 (2): 283-306.
– Cohn, Carol. ‘Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals’. Signs 12, no. 4 (1987): 687–718.
– Harrington de Santana, Anne. “Nuclear Weapons as the Currency of Power: Deconstructing the Fetishism of Force.” Nonproliferation Review 16, no. 3 (2009): 325–45.
– Jervis, Robert. ‘Why Nuclear Superiority Doesn’t Matter’. Political Science Quarterly 94, no. 4 (1979): 617–33.
– Laffey, Mark, and Jutta Weldes. ‘Decolonizing the Cuban Missile Crisis’. International Studies Quarterly 52, no. 3 (1 September 2008): 555–77.
– Mueller, John. “The essential irrelevance of nuclear weapons: Stability in the postwar world.” International Security 13.2 (1988): 55-79.
– Nye, Joseph S. ‘Nuclear Learning and U.S.–Soviet Security Regimes’. International Organization 41, no. 03 (June 1987): 371–402.
– Sagan, Scott D. “Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons? Three Models in Search of a Bomb,” 2012.
– Tannenwald, Nina. ‘The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Normative Basis of Nuclear Non-Use’. International Organization 53, no. 03 (1999): 433–68.
Questions you may wish to keep in mind include:
– What do the different theoretical approaches reveal or conceal?
– What is significant about the authors’ findings?
– What is relevant about the articles?
– What, if anything, do the articles get wrong?
– Which approach is better, and why?