Overview

In the early 1950s, Israel secretly launched a project designed to achieve a nuclear option. Initially supported by France, this daring project stood to engineer a dramatic change in Israels strategic position vis-a-vis its neighboring Arab states and the wider international community. A nuclear program was driven by the firm conviction of David Ben-Gurion that Israels existence could be guaranteed only with the aid of such a deterrent. The ensuing nuclear defense strategy was upheld by successive Israeli governments. Adamantly opposed to Americas request to allow external supervision of its nuclear activity, Israel labored to avert a potentially disastrous rift with its one superpower ally. Israel's Nuclear Option recounts the dialogue and related diplomatic activity that took place during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and the Ben-Gurion and Eshkol premierships. The intense and often difficult discussions, which pitted Israel's security concerns against the United States determined goal to stem nuclear proliferation, eventually produced a set of formal and informal strategic understandings regarding Israels nuclear deterrence.

Full Product Details

Author:   Zaki Shalom
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   Liverpool University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 22.90cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 15.20cm
Weight:   0.478kg
ISBN:  

9781845190149

ISBN 10:   1845190149
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 April 2005
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction - Neutralism in Retrospect: Definitions and Paradigms; Syrias Road to Independence: The Emergence of Pragmatic/Calculative Nationalist Neutralism; The Rise of 'Anti-Western Neutralism' in Post-Mandatory Syria; Neutralism in Practice: Syria and the Consolidation of the Arab-Asian Group; Communism, Syria, and Neutralist Trends; Syrias Rival Schools of Neutralism and the Road to Union; Nasserite 'Positive Neutralism' and the United Arab Republic; Conclusion - The Rise of the Neo-Bath and the Gradual Demise of Neutralism; Appendix - Modes of Practised Arab Neutralism; Index.

Reviews

Zaki Shalom recounts the US-Israel dialogue on Israel's nuclear project, and delineates the limitations a superpower faces when trying to impose its security agenda on a regional ally. Shalom's book is an important contribution to our understanding of the Israeli nuclear project, and the diplomacy of arms control. -- Prof. Yair Evron, The School of Government and Policy, The Security Studies Program, Tel Aviv University. In recent years much of the vaunted 'opacity' of Israel's nuclear weapons status has been stripped away by scholars and critics. In this context, Zaki Shalom contributes a thorough, painstakingly documented blow-by-blow account of the diplomatic dimension of the process by which Israel, unbidden, penetrated the nuclear club. Shalom's work is exemplary archival research, refreshingly old-fashioned in its assiduous attention to multiple primary sources, showing the strengths of a documentary focus even on such a 'sensitive' topic. As an established scholar of David Ben-Gurion he is particularly effective in underlining how Ben-Gurion's audacity was key to the decision to push ahead; put simply, there was nothing preordained or certain, in the 1950s and 1960s, about Israel's seemingly quixotic pursuit of nuclear capability. -- Alan Dowty, Kahanoff Chair Professor of Israel Studies, University of Calgary.

Zaki Shalom recounts the US -- Israel dialogue on Israel's nuclear project, and delineates the limitations a superpower faces when trying to impose its security agenda on a regional ally. Shalom's book is an important contribution to our understanding of the Israeli nuclear project, and the diplomacy of arms control. -- Prof. Yair Evron, The School of Government and Policy, The Security Studies Program, Tel Aviv University. In recent years much of the vaunted 'opacity' of Israel's nuclear weapons status has been stripped away by scholars and critics. In this context, Zaki Shalom contributes a thorough, painstakingly documented blow-by-blow account of the diplomatic dimension of the process by which Israel, unbidden, penetrated the nuclear club. Shalom's work is exemplary archival research, refreshingly old-fashioned in its assiduous attention to multiple primary sources, showing the strengths of a documentary focus even on such a 'sensitive' topic. As an established scholar of David Ben-Gurion he is particularly effective in underlining how Ben-Gurion's audacity was key to the decision to push ahead; put simply, there was nothing preordained or certain, in the 1950s and 1960s, about Israel's seemingly quixotic pursuit of nuclear capability. -- Alan Dowty, Kahanoff Chair Professor of Israel Studies, University of Calgary.

Author Information

Zaki Shalom is a senior researcher at the Ben-Gurion Research Center, Ben-Gurion University. His main fields of study are the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel's defense policy. He has published several books and numerous articles dealing with various aspects of these topics. His previous book, David Ben-Gurion, the State of Israel, and the Arab World, 1949-1956, is also published by Sussex Academic Press.

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