This text combines thematic and theoretical discussions regarding nuclear weapons and nuclear energy with case studies from across the region.

The nuclear age is coming to the Middle East. Understanding the scope and motivations for this development and its implications for global security is essential. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of popular and scholarly attention focussed on nuclear issues around the globe and especially in the Middle East. These studies fall into one of four general categories. They tend to focus either on the security and military aspects of nuclear weapons, or on the sources and mechanisms for proliferation and means of reversing it, or nuclear energy, or the logics driving state policymakers toward adopting the nuclear option. The Nuclear Question in the Middle East is the first book of its kind to combine thematic and theoretical discussions regarding nuclear weapons and nuclear energy with case studies from across the region. What are the key domestic drivers of nuclear behaviour and decision-making in the Middle East? How are the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council seeking to employ nuclear energy to further guarantee and expedite their hyper-growth of recent decades? Are there ideal models emerging in this regard that others might emulate in the foreseeable future, and, if so, what consequences is this development likely to have for other civilian nuclear aspirants? These region-wide themes form the backdrop against which specific case studies are examined.

"Bahgat has performed a singular service by offering balanced historical and current analyses of the perception and misperception, cues and miscues, that mark understanding the area's nuclear ambitions."--Dorothea El Mallakh, Director, International Research Center for Energy & Economic Development (ICEED) "A well-written survey of the nuclear question in the Middle East from both historical and contemporary policy perspectives. It will be highly useful to students and practitioners dealing with security issues in the region."--T. V. Paul, author of Power versus Prudence: Why Nations Forgo Nuclear Weapons "A comprehensive and integrated discussion of the nuclear weapons proliferation risks in the Middle East, in an up-to-the minute analysis drawing on decades of history."--George H. Quester, author of Nuclear Monopoly Why do some countries seek to acquire nuclear weapons? How can they be convinced to give up these aspirations? These are the underlying questions in Gawdat Bahgat's intriguing new study of nuclear proliferation in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, and Saudi Arabia. Bahgat looks at the economic and political forces that shape this threat to world peace and at the prospects--"largely unrealistic"--of establishing a nuclear weapons free zone in the region in the foreseeable future.

Understanding the scope and motivations of the Middle East's nuclear activities are essential to global security concerns, but few studies see past the political and military dimensions of the issue, or look beyond the sources and mechanisms of proliferation and the possibilities of reversing them. The Nuclear Question in the Middle East is the first book to combine thematic and theoretical discussions of nuclear weapons and energy with empirical case studies from across the Middle East. Arguing that the military and energy aspects of nuclear programs are becoming increasingly difficult to decouple, this volume explores the key domestic drivers of nuclear behavior and decision making in the region; the deployment of nuclear energy by Gulf Cooperation Council nations to further guarantee and expedite their hyper-economic growth; and the emergence of ideal models of development that other states may emulate -- and what the consequences of such progress may have on other civilian nuclear aspirants.

Nuclear weapons are the elusive ‘toys’ of modern warfare and are hankered after by every Middle Eastern government. Although no Middle eastern government has formally admitted that the purpose of its investment in nuclear research is to develop weapons, it is certain that two countries, Israel and Pakistan, have mastered the technology for making nuclear bombs and that others are attempting to manipulate their nuclear hardware to this end. The combination of these nuclear ambitions, the large amounts of money that can be made available for research and the area’s political instability make the region a powerful example of both the drive towards, and the dangers of, nuclear proliferation. This book, first published in 1988, examines the evolution of nuclear research and development in the region. It shows that it is the product of a complex web of internal and external factors, fuelled by considerations of international prestige and local rivalries. Whilst concluding that it is probably no longer possible to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons technology to the Middle East, it suggests ways in which the rate of proliferation can be slowed down.