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Description of  Tempting Fate: Why Nonnuclear States Confront Nuclear Opponents (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

Unpacking of the dynamics of conflict under conditions of nuclear monopoly, Paul C. Avey argues in Tempting Fate that the costs and benefits of using nuclear weapons create openings that weak nonnuclear actors can exploit. Avey uses four case studies to show the key strategies available to nonnuclear states: Iraqi decision-making under Saddam Hussein in confrontations with the United States Egyptian leaders' thinking about the Israeli nuclear arsenal during wars in 196970 and 1973 Chinese confrontations with the United States in 1950, 1954, and 1958 and a dispute that never escalated to war, the Soviet-United States tensions between 1946 and 1948 that culminated in the Berlin Blockade. Read more