Overview / Henry D. Sokolski -- Pt. I. Asia. Asian drivers of Russia’s nuclear force posture / Jacob W. Kipp -- China’s strategic forces in the 21st century : the People’s Liberation Army’s changing nuclear doctrine and force posture / Michael Mazza and Dan Blumenthal -- Plutonium, proliferation and radioactive-waste politics in East Asia / Frank von Hippel -- China and the emerging strategic competition in aerospace power / Mark Stokes and Ian Easton -- Pt. II. Middle East. The Middle East’s nuclear future / Richard L. Russell -- Alternative proliferation futures for North Africa / Bruno Tertrais -- Casting a blind eye : Kissinger and Nixon finesse Israel’s bomb / Victor Gilinsky -- Pt. III. South Asia. Nuclear weapons stability or anarchy in the 21st century : China, India, and Pakistan / Thomas W. Graham -- Nuclear missile-related risks in South Asia / R. N. Ganesh -- Prospects for Indian and Pakistani arms control / Feroz Hassan Khan -- Pt. IV. Post-Cold War military science and arms control. To what extent can precision conventional technologies substitute for nuclear weapons? / Stephen J. Lukasik -- Missiles for peace / Henry D. Sokolski -- Missile defense and arms control / Jeff Kueter -- A hardheaded guide to nuclear controls / Henry D. Sokolski.

"With most of the world’s advanced economies now stuck in recession; Western support for defense cuts and nuclear disarmament increasing; and a major emerging Asian power at odds with its neighbors and the United States; it is tempting to think our times are about to rhyme with a decade of similar woes--the disorderly 1930s. Might we again be drifting toward some new form of mortal national combat? Or, will our future more likely ape the near-half-century that defined the Cold War--a period in which tensions between competing states ebbed and flowed but peace mostly prevailed by dint of nuclear mutual fear and loathing? The short answer is, nobody knows. This much, however, is clear: The strategic military competitions of the next 2 decades will be unlike any the world has yet seen. Assuming U.S., Chinese, Russian, Israeli, Indian, French, British, and Pakistani strategic forces continue to be modernized and America and Russia continue to reduce their strategic nuclear deployments, the next arms race will be run by a much larger number of contestants--with highly destructive strategic capabilities far more closely matched and capable of being quickly enlarged than in any other previous period in history." -- Overview