About Ward Wilson

Ward Wilson has been a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, BASIC, and the Federation of American Scientists. He is currently the executive director of RealistRevolt, a grassroots advocacy organization in the Chicago area. He is widely acknowledged as the leading source of pragmatic arguments against nuclear weapons in the world today.

His book, Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, was endorsed by two Pulitzer-Prize-winning historians of nuclear weapons, recommended by four star generals, praised by a former head of state and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and described as "brilliant, original, and important."

He is an award-winning writer, who has been published in anti-nuclear journals like The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Nonproliferation Review, military journals like Joint Force Quarterly and Revue de Défense Nationale, foreign policy journals like Survival, Foreign Policy, and Harvard's International Security, as well as in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and others.

He has spoken in 23 countries on six continents, at the Pentagon, the French National Assembly, the United Nations, the Scottish National Parliament, the U.S. State Department, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Georgetown, the Sorbonne, the U.S. Naval War College, King's College London, Hamburg University, Nagasaki University, University of Pretoria, and others.

He is currently working on a new book, titled The Realist Case for Eliminating Nuclear Weapons.

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Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons Jan 15, 2013

by Ward Wilson

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“Brilliant, original, and important—the best analysis yet of why nuclear weapons don’t work.” —Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Nuclear weapons have always been a serious but seemingly insoluble problem: while they’re obviously dangerous, they are also, apparently, necessary. This groundbreaking study shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths. It clears up such common misconceptions as . . .

• Nuclear weapons necessarily shock and awe opponents, including Japan at the end of World War II

• Nuclear deterrence is reliable in a crisis

• Destruction wins wars

• The bomb has kept the peace for sixty-five years

• We can’t put the nuclear genie back in the bottle

Drawing on new information and the latest historical research, Wilson poses a fundamental challenge to the myths on which nuclear weapons policy is currently built. Using pragmatic arguments and an unemotional, clear-eyed insistence on the truth, he arrives at a surprising conclusion: nuclear weapons are enormously dangerous, but don’t appear to be terribly useful. In that case, he asks, why would we want to keep them?

This book will be widely read and discussed by everyone who cares about war, peace, foreign policy, and security in the twenty-first century.

“Magisterial in its sweep, research, and erudition, yet written in a direct, unstuffy style, which makes it an easy read.” —Commander Robert D. Green, Royal Navy (ret.)

“This slim, persuasively argued, tightly written book provides much food for thought and could make some readers radically change their perceptions about nuclear weapons.” —Booklist

Other Formats: Hardcover , Paperback

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