Flattering the Passions : Or, the Bomb and Britain's Bid for a World Role

This is an exploration of the effectiveness of British defence strategies and an examination of the sceptical US and NATO response to British capabilities. The book argues that Britain's political, diplomatic and military elites have clung doggedly and irrationally to a world view which they are culturally and psychologically incapable of shaking off. As a result, the authors contend, the massive expenditure on British nuclear arms, far from strengthening the country, actually weakened it by diverting precious capital resources from more necessary social programmes, leaving as the only winners in the British nuclear game (other than the arms industry) those politicians, diplomats and generals who can strut with greater self-assurance on the stage of world diplomacy.