Description
Book SynopsisWhen is preventive war chosen to counter nuclear proliferation? In All Options on the Table, Rachel Elizabeth Whitlark looks beyond systemic and slow-moving factors such as the distribution of power. Instead, she highlights individual leaders'' beliefs to explain when preventive military force is the preferred strategy. Executive perspectivenot institutional structureis paramount.
Whitlark makes her argument through archivally based comparative case studies. She focuses on executive decision making regarding nuclear programs in China, North Korea, Iraq, Pakistan, and Syria. This book considers the actions of US presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, as well as Israeli prime ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ehud Olmert. All Options on the Table demonstrates that leaders have different beliefs about the consequences of nuclear proliferation in the international system and their state''s
Table of Contents
1. When Leaders Use Preventive Military Force
2. Explaining Preventive War as a Counterproliferation Strategy
3. JFK and LBJ Confront China's Nuclear Program
4. Presidents 41 and 42 Engage North Korea's Nuclear Program
5. Three US Presidents Tangle with Iraq's Nuclear Program
6. Israel's Preventive War Decision Making
7. Conclusion
