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Introduction: The Ethics of Nuclear Deterrence
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16186 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
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6 / 1989 |
1,084 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
With the perestroika reforms going full speed ahead in the Soviet Union, and Mikhail Gorbachev sponsoring significant disarmament in Europe and working hard to reduce clashes of interest with the United States in the Third World, the ethics of deterrence may seem to be an untimely topic for discussion. But nothing could be farther from the truth. The very developments that at long last hold out hope for a permanent end to the Cold War and the inauguration of new world order also bring into the realm of the not entirely improbable a fatal miscalculation during the period of transition.
So far the reforms in the Soviet Union, although popular among the intelligentsia and the technocratic elite, have been ineffective--even retrogressive with respect to living standards and employment guarantees. Moreover, they are deeply threatening to an entrenched and powerful bureaucracy. Eastern Europe is in transition, and serious nationality problems have arisen in the Soviet Union. The very glasnost that has undermined the legitimacy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and permitted democratic currents to flourish has also permitted very dark nationalistic and reactionary movements, such as Pamyat (Memory), to gather significant strength.
There are likely crises ahead both in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union itself, where the powerful fifty-thousand-strong Ukrainian population is becoming restive under the iron heel of the unpopular Scherbitsky. A revolt, either in Poland or the Ukraine, for instance, might threaten to bring down the Soviet system into repressive measures that would worsen an already declining economy, a situation that, exacerbated by reactionary nationalistic surges, might seem to require external adventure as a presumed, or at least hoped-for, solution.
Even if these scenarios are not highly probable, they are not so unlikely that a prudent Western leadership would be unprepared for them. Deterrence, with all its moral problems, would be an important aspect of this preparation.
A number of papers that explore the moral aspects of deterrence were presented at the Seventeenth International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, held in Los Angeles, California, on November 24-27, 1988, under the leadership of Jack Barkenbuss and Alvin Weinberg. The ones that we have reprinted represent a range of religious and secular views. They are thoughtful and intellectually rewarding.
There is one aspect, however, in which
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