(In one volume the reader can trace the story of nuclear strategy fromits roots in thinking about airpower in the first decades of theTwentieth Century to arguments about how to deal with the possibilityof nuclear terrorism in the Twenty-First. There is full coverage ofhow the west came to rely on nuclear weapons to deter Sovietaggression and the major problems of credibility that soon opened upas the Soviet Union developed its own nuclear capability. Thehighlights of the ensuing strategic debate are described, and thecontributions of the leading figures in these debates are examined.The extent to which the theorising influenced the formation of policyin the major nuclear powers is explored. At all times the widerpolitical context is kept in view, demonstrating the factors whichshaped the nuclear legacy with which each new generation must cope.)