This book examines the question: is the elimination of nuclear weapons feasible? Individual chapters address the major conceptual, technical, and economic issues in the design of a non-nuclear security regime. Other chapters explore more specialized issues as they relate to the feasibility of the elimination of nuclear weapons: élite perceptions and the decision-making process, verification, nuclear proliferation, fissile materials and warheads, alliances and regional hegemonies, and deterrence. The concluding chapter addresses those issues relating to the maintenance of a non-nuclear security regime.

Readership: Professionals, lay people, and students concerned with strategic studies, peace studies, and international relations; consultants, policy-makers, and journalists specializing in these areas.

"an excellent production from SIPRI, useful both as a textbook and as a source of ideas, for the case studies are in general dispassionate, comprehensive and well-documented ... The four opening essays on the USA and Soviet Union seem to me of particularly high quality; they have the detachment of true history." - Journal of Strategic Studies