What do you think?
Rate this book
It Is Possible: A Future Without Nuclear Weapons
The most intelligent, comprehensive, and compelling argument ever advanced against nuclear weapons.
—George Lee Butler, US Air Force (ret.), former commander in chief, USSTRATCOM
In this stunning, breakthrough work, Ward Wilson brilliantly dismantles the false claims about nuclear weapons that have kept a nuclear sword of Damocles over our heads for so long.
—Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of nuclear weapons.
If you only ever read one book about nuclear weapons, let it be this one.
— Emma Pike, Nuclear disarmament consultant & activist
Provides the inspiration people need to eliminate these weapons.
—Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Arguably the most important contribution to the debate over the efficacy/fallacy of nuclear deterrence ever written.
—Martin Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of nuclear weapons
You owe it to yourself to read this remarkable message of hope.
—Joe Morris Doss, Episcopal Bishop (ret.)
The world doesn’t need nuclear weapons and this book proves this fact clearly and firmly.
—Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian judge, activist, founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
For the better part of a century, presidents, government bodies, admirals, academics, journalists, and ordinary people alike have largely accepted the necessity of nuclear weapons. But what are the historical, political, and technological assumptions that underlie this widely shared belief, and do they hold water? What if the value of nuclear weapons has been overestimated and overstated? What if the elimination of nuclear weapons is not only possible, but actually prudent and practical?
Endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former presidents, military leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, and more, It Is Possible lays out a practical, pragmatic pathway to eliminating nuclear weapons. Each accessibly written chapter addresses a key issue in the nuclear weapons debate, from the political failures of the anti-nuclear movement to the fundamental ineffectuality of the weapons themselves and from the historical framing that continues to shape our current understanding to the new grassroots movement needed to change both minds and policies. It Is Possible arms readers with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration needed to eliminate one of the most dangerous threats to our shared civilization.
—George Lee Butler, US Air Force (ret.), former commander in chief, USSTRATCOM
In this stunning, breakthrough work, Ward Wilson brilliantly dismantles the false claims about nuclear weapons that have kept a nuclear sword of Damocles over our heads for so long.
—Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of nuclear weapons.
If you only ever read one book about nuclear weapons, let it be this one.
— Emma Pike, Nuclear disarmament consultant & activist
Provides the inspiration people need to eliminate these weapons.
—Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of ICAN and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Arguably the most important contribution to the debate over the efficacy/fallacy of nuclear deterrence ever written.
—Martin Sherwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of nuclear weapons
You owe it to yourself to read this remarkable message of hope.
—Joe Morris Doss, Episcopal Bishop (ret.)
The world doesn’t need nuclear weapons and this book proves this fact clearly and firmly.
—Dr. Shirin Ebadi, Iranian judge, activist, founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
For the better part of a century, presidents, government bodies, admirals, academics, journalists, and ordinary people alike have largely accepted the necessity of nuclear weapons. But what are the historical, political, and technological assumptions that underlie this widely shared belief, and do they hold water? What if the value of nuclear weapons has been overestimated and overstated? What if the elimination of nuclear weapons is not only possible, but actually prudent and practical?
Endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former presidents, military leaders, Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, and more, It Is Possible lays out a practical, pragmatic pathway to eliminating nuclear weapons. Each accessibly written chapter addresses a key issue in the nuclear weapons debate, from the political failures of the anti-nuclear movement to the fundamental ineffectuality of the weapons themselves and from the historical framing that continues to shape our current understanding to the new grassroots movement needed to change both minds and policies. It Is Possible arms readers with the knowledge, skills, and inspiration needed to eliminate one of the most dangerous threats to our shared civilization.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2023
4 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Ward Wilson
3 books2 followersWard Wilson is a senior fellow at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He has spoken before governments and at think tanks and universities, including Stanford, Princeton, Georgetown, the Naval War College, and the United Nations.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 17, 2024
It is a good book that points to the weak spots of conventional wisdom on nuclear theory. It rightfully points out the flaws and inconsistencies of deterrence theory and persuasively argues that nuclear weapons have very little battlefield utility. All of this is very well argued and written.
However, there remains a fundamental flaw: the positivist epistemology of the book. The book is the strongest when it argues that the alleged utility of nuclear weapons is an absurd social construct, not a scientific fact. But instead of then deconstructing the ways in which make sense of the utility nukes, the author simply claims that he possesses a more “objective” view. This means that the book does not get to the core of the beast: the subjectivity of the construction of truth around nuclear weapons.
However, there remains a fundamental flaw: the positivist epistemology of the book. The book is the strongest when it argues that the alleged utility of nuclear weapons is an absurd social construct, not a scientific fact. But instead of then deconstructing the ways in which make sense of the utility nukes, the author simply claims that he possesses a more “objective” view. This means that the book does not get to the core of the beast: the subjectivity of the construction of truth around nuclear weapons.
Displaying 1 of 1 review