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The agonies and arguments of Australian nuclear weapons
Posted By Graeme Dobell on September 2, 2019 @ 06:00
‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ — Saint Augustine of Hippo
[M]y own preliminary conclusion is that there are circumstances in which the development of nuclear forces could be justified, but only where the need was very clear, and where there were no alternatives. I am not at all sure that our circumstances will meet those tests, which is why I neither predict, and I certainly do not advocate, that we should acquire nuclear forces.
That would be a world where Japan, South Korea and Australia had shared incentives to proliferate, and perhaps Indonesia and Vietnam too; where we probably wouldn’t be the first horse out of the gate; and where we might reasonably hope to ‘share’ the challenges of proliferation with others.
Let me say that such a future world is less attractive than the one we live in now. Asia typically hasn’t put a high priority on nuclear weapons, which tend to sit in the strategic background rather than the foreground. A sudden cascade of nuclear proliferation would make for a more fraught and difficult region—which is one good reason we ought to be working harder to keep the US engaged in Asia and its umbrella business healthy.
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[1] How to defend Australia: https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/how-defend-australia
[2] end of the US alliance: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-us-alliance-and-defending-australia/
[3] Oz strategy: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/a-new-australian-way-of-war/
[4] Australian Defence Force: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/hugh-whites-military-revolution/
[5] Oh, for God’s sake!: https://johnmenadue.com/dorothy-horsfield-measures-short-of-war-australian-national-universitys-emeritus-professor-hugh-whites-plans-for-defending-australia/
[6] dubious operational utility plus the stench of hypocrisy: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/professor-white-bomb-can-endanger-not-defend-australia
[7] beyond: https://theconversation.com/nuclear-weapons-australia-has-no-way-to-build-them-even-if-we-wanted-to-120075
[8] home alone: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/sociable-nuclear-proliferation/
[9] Asian nuclear cascade: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-nuclear-weapons-and-americas-umbrella-business/
[10] share: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/two-concepts-nuclear-sharing/