Conclusion: The Nuclear Dragon: One Eye Open, One Eye Closed

This volume began with a simple puzzle: What forces are driving and stalling current nuclear disarmament momentum? Recently, a combination of factors has brought the idea of eliminating nuclear weapons back onto the international security agenda. The growing realization that many of the Cold War constraints are long gone; that the proliferation of nuclear technology is occurring rapidly throughout the world; and that one day a catastrophic nuclear terrorist attack could be perpetrated have made a world free of nuclear weapons appealing to many countries, big and small. This global disarmament project, however, has already proved daunting in its infancy-a clear reminder that, in the colorful words of Michael Howard, the nuclear dragon is not dead but at best is sleeping. Commitment to slaying the nuclear dragon once and for all entails overcoming considerable obstacles of all kinds. Because nuclear disarmament momentum is for the fi rst time creeping inside key governments, most notably inside the U.S. government, and because it is not developing in response to any specifi c historical event, there is a clear need to depart from the traditional debate between nuclear disarmament devotees (or "idealists") and cynics (or "realists") and to provide what Michael Quinlan called a "cool and careful examination" of the topic. This has been the goal of this volume, which has focused specifi cally on identifying and analyzing the state- level political opportunities and challenges aff ecting current nuclear disarmament momentum.