Introduction: Rethinking the Nuclear Weapons Dilemma in Europe

The recent deployment of 572 new US nuclear missiles in Western Europe reawakened a debate about the role for nuclear weapons in the defence of the NATO alliance. Although the missile deployment was intended to reassure America’s allies of US commitments to their defence, it has paradoxically often produced the opposite effect: namely a reawakening of a very fundamental debate on both sides of the Atlantic about the dilemma posed by nuclear weapons for the defence of Europe.