Geoffrey L. Goodwin - Ethics and Nuclear Deterrence

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: NUCLEAR SECURITY

Volume 27

First published in 1982 by Croom Helm

This edition first published in 2021

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1982 Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-367-50682-7 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-309763-1 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-53689-3 (Volume 27) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-00-308291-0 (Volume 27) (ebk)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

EDITED BY GEOFFREY GOODWIN

1982 Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament

Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,

Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT

Reprinted 1983

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Goodwin, Geoffrey

Ethics and nuclear deterrence.

1. Deterrence (Strategy) Moral and religious aspects

2. Atomic warfare Moral and religious aspects

I. Title

172.42BR115.A85

ISBN 0-7099-1159-9

The Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament (CCADD) comprises a multi-denominational group of Christians with differing responsibilities; governmental and non-governmental. The Council seeks to bring an ethical viewpoint to bear on disarmament and defence and related issues of national and international security. Its members meet for regular discussions and conferences at which a wide range of views is expressed.

The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the authors alone.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

Billing and Sons Limited, Worcester

The preservation of peace a word that is at the heart of the Gospel is the greatest of the challenges facing mankind today. It is a task to which we must bend all our energies, for the price of failure is too horrible to contemplate.

Men and women all over the world are deeply puzzled about how to achieve the objective which we all seek. There are continuing differences of view on the best way to proceed. These differences are reflected within the Church as well as within the community at large.

In these circumstances we have a duty to listen to each other, to use our minds as well as our hearts, and to wrestle with the deep ethical problems which these issues involve. Peace will not be won by superficial or sloppy thinking.

I welcome this book and hope that it will be widely read. Its authors reflect some of the different approaches which exist, but share the same aim. It is a serious work on a desperately important subject. If it helps people to think deeply and constructively about these matters and I believe it will the book will perform a most valuable service at a time when this task is becoming increasingly urgent.

This collection of essays stems from a request to the Council on Christian Approaches to Defence and Disarmament (CCADD) by the British Council of Churches to produce a revised version of The Searchfor Security: A Christian Appraisal, published in 1973 by the SCM Press, but now out of print. That report, which was the product of a group composed mainly of CCADD members, was wide-ranging and examined some of the root causes of international conflict as well as the machinery for dealing with international disputes and what are customarily regarded as defence and disarmament issues. The CCADD group, convened under the chairmanship of Ronald Hope-Jones to revise the report, concluded early on that something more than the updating of the previous material was required. As the groups discussions continued, it also became clear that not only had the deterioration in East-West relations since the original report made consideration of the nuclear dimension of these relations more urgent, but most of the group were preoccupied with the ethical issues raised, particularly for Christians, by deterrence policies and by the debate between proponents of the multilateralist/unilateralist approaches to disarmament and arms control.