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Article: A time for umbrellas. (defense against nuclear weapons) (Defense in the 21st Century)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 5, 1992
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1992 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT WAS nuclear weapons that made the cold war unique. That confrontation, unlike all previous ones, threatened not only the destruction of armies and cities and provinces; for the first time, man thought he might be contemplating extinction. But the cold war is over. Of today's six certain possessors of nuclear arms three (America, France and Britain) were allies in winning the cold war, Russia is a convert to their ideas and a suppliant for their money, China is being very cautious, and Israel's missiles are not pointed at the democracies. Two borderline cases, India and Pakistan, may be backing away from their nuclear obsession with each other, and South Africa maybe ...