September 2025 Books of Note

September 2025

Rethinking a Political Approach to Nuclear Abolition
George Perkovich, Fumihiko Yoshida, and Michiru Nishida
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2025

This book asserts that addressing the accelerating expansion of nuclear arms, growing nuclear risks and deepening geopolitical divisions requires strategies grounded in political-security realities more than the qualities or quantities of weapons. Notably, the authors acknowledge that their proposal may frustrate both disarmament and deterrence proponents. As they write, “In focusing on people and politics first, rather than the numbers and types of weapons and plans for their use, [… the book] will assume that preventing nuclear war and achieving nuclear disarmament are politically more difficult than the most avid proponents and opponents of nuclear weapons tend to recognize.”

Noting the difficulty of preventing nuclear war and further nuclear armament, the authors stress the “vital role of high-level political dialogue in advancing nuclear disarmament.” They say that the pragmatic approach is to acknowledge the “reality of nuclear deterrence while working to reduce both intentional and accidental risks.” The book outlines the unstable dynamics of the current nuclear landscape. It also explores three paths forward—abolition of nuclear weapons, “unstabilized” deterrence, or stabilized competition—and makes the case for the middle-ground option, stabilized competition, as the most pragmatic near-term solution “so long as politics preclude abolition.” Drawing on past arms control lessons, the authors articulate one large goal—to end nuclear overkill—and six guidelines to make deterrence more stable and accountable.

Despite little hope for disarmament, the authors argue that “it is possible that societies and some leaders will recognize the unnecessary danger of current trends and begin laying the groundwork for mutual restraints to 
be built when political changes allow more reasonable policies.”—SHIZUKA KURAMITSU

Beyond the Euromissile Crisis: Global Histories of Anti-Nuclear 
Activism in the Cold War
Luc-André Brunet and Eirini Karamouzi (eds.)
Berghahn Books, 2025

This open-access volume, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, expands the scope of historical research on anti-nuclear activism during the Cold War beyond the well-known North Atlantic movements. The editors argue that the focus in existing literature on the Euromissile crisis of the 1980s and Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty insufficiently represents the international reach of anti-nuclear movements in the late 20th century.

The edited volume collates 13 chapters and contributes to the field in four main ways: It broadens the geographical scope and includes regions that have been underrepresented in the discourse, such as Yugoslavia and French Polynesia; it highlights the connections and divisions across transnational movements, including disagreements on the definition of peace; it reassesses the established Cold War chronology by questioning the relevance of the Euromissile crisis for global movements; and it analyzes the relations between state and nonstate actors in the form of policymakers and peace movements. Overall, the book shows the diversity of movements, demonstrating that anti-nuclear activists followed no uniform practice in their campaigns.—LENA KROEPKE