Reddit Reddit reviews The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: An Enduring Debate (Third Edition)

We found 3 Reddit comments about The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: An Enduring Debate (Third Edition). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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3 Reddit comments about The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: An Enduring Debate (Third Edition):

u/fitzy42 · 12 pointsr/politics

The more you study, there are two schools of thought. One argues that we are so fucking lucky to still be alive after all the missed signals, technical malfunctions and botched diplomacy that has occurred since nuclear weapons were invented. The second argues that nuclear weapons have imposed the longest peace between the great powers in the modern era, and that their existence speaks to an uncontrollable variable that squashes the ability of militaries or governments to talk themselves into war. If you want to know more, I highly recommend checking out The Spread of Nuclear Weapons by Sagan and Waltz.

u/Nilocreoniloquiero · 3 pointsr/PoliticalDiscussion

They don't have much of an option to do that. China is actually in a fairly weak bargaining position with North Korea. The likeliest outcome of China ceasing to subsidize North Korea is a crisis the likes of which they had after the collapse of the USSR. Except this time, there would likely not be another country to step in and take over the subsidies.

That runs the risk of a humanitarian crisis on China's border, which they don't want because they'd rather not deal with the influx of refugees. It also raises the risk of a North Korean collapse, which is most likely not in their interests. Here they get adverse political outcomes, ranging from nuclear weapons in the hands of remnants of the North Korean military that could fall into the wrong hands to a possible reunification of Korea under the South, meaning US troops on the Chinese border.

The short version: the costs to China of a North Korean collapse are much greater than the cost of subsidizing and attempting to police a difficult ally. It's reasonably clear that this is the case, so China threatening to withdraw all support is a bit of an empty threat.