The British Nuclear Experience: The Role of Beliefs, Culture and Status Part One

One of the key questions in contemporary Strategic Studies and Non-Proliferation Studies focuses on the saliency of nuclear weapons in national security policies. Why is it that some states put particular emphasis on developing nuclear weapons and devising strategies for their use? Realist explanations tend to stress the importance of factors such as ‘the maximization of power', the pursuit of 'national security interests' and (in its Neo-Realist variant) the role of 'structure' in a largely anarchic international system . In contrast, this article takes Britain as a case study, and argues ‘beliefs’, 'culture' and 'status' also have an important, sometimes more important, role to play.