Joe Cirincione has asked me to blog the 2005 Carnegie Nonproliferation Conference along with Hans Kristensen, Pavel Podvig and Paul Kerr.
The Nonproliferation Conference is always an interesting experience for me because I tend to think the nonproliferation community overstates (1) the importance of external factors in the decision to acquire nuclear weapons and (2) the danger from a country acquiring its first nuclear weapon against building a large, alert arsenal.
Dr. Jacques E. C. Hyman, assistant professor of government at Smith College, takes aim at the first assumption in short web-exclusive for Foreign Policy magazine.
I am eager to read Hyman’s forthcoming book, The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions and Foreign Policy. (Cambridge University Press, February 2006).