For reasons that will be only too easily understood, nuclear weapons are a subject that triggers very strongly motivated reactions and opposing ideas. Their role in preventing major conflicts through deterrence over many past decades is undeniable and indeed self-evident, and this not only in relation to what used to be the East-West divide but also across the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. And yet, the horrifying perception of what would happen, should deterrence fail leads even commentators and analysts who are quite remote from pacifist or unilateral disarmament positions to regard nuclear weapons as sort of a Damocles' sword perpetually hanging over the head of humanity as a whole, and to suggest that the world would be a better and safer place if these weapons could be sort of "disin-vented" or at least removed from the arsenal of strategic options available to a number of states.
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