The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation

Abstract

Dozens of states have long been capable of acquiring nuclear weapons, yet only a few have actually done so. Jacques E. C. Hymans finds that the key to this surprising historical pattern lies not in externally imposed constraints, but rather in state leaders' conceptions of the national identity. Synthesizing a wide range of scholarship from the humanities and social sciences to experimental psychology and neuroscience, Hymans builds a rigorous model of decisionmaking that links identity to emotions and ultimately to nuclear policy choices. Exhaustively researched case studies of France, India, Argentina, and Australia - two that got the bomb and two that abstained - demonstrate the value of this model while debunking common myths. This book will be invaluable to policymakers and concerned citizens who are frustrated with the frequent misjudgments of states' nuclear ambitions, and to scholars who seek a better understanding of how leaders make big foreign policy decisions.

A Foreign Policy Analysis Perspective on the Domestic Politics Turn in IR Theory

“…Some security scholars do focus on the dynamics of perceptions and beliefs (for example, Hymans ; Rousseau ), but this research is not explicitly situated within the NCR tradition.…”

Opaque Proliferation: The Historiography of Australia's Cold War Nuclear Weapons Option

“…He referenced major foreign policy speeches and other addresses, spanning the post-war period to the ratification of the NPT, to delineate the 'national identity conceptions' of six Australian leaders. 45 There is a question mark over whether Hymans' methodology provides the most accurate representation, but few historians familiar with Australian foreign policy would dispute his depiction of those particular leaders' national identities. This is a highly accessible approach; given foreign policy is so routinely seen as synonymous with national leaders' viewpoints, there is an intrinsic logic to any theory that places the leader at the centre of decisions on the development of nuclear weapons.…”

The npt & the sources of nuclear restraint

“…According to Hymans, the apparent success of the npt in containing proliferation results primarily from the fact "that few state leaders have desired the things it prohibits." 16 Approaches that emphasize normative influences on nuclear decision-making often are criticized for their lack of clarity in explaining how, when, and why norms influenced nuclear weapons decisions. One of the few studies to tackle this issue directly is by Harald Müller and Andreas Schmidt.…”