Drawing on years of experience analyzing defense strategy, the author advocates for renewed U.S. attention to nuclear weapons and discusses how their presence will transform the way crises develop and escalate.

Henry Holt and Company and St. Martin's Griffin are imprints of Macmillan Publishers. Includes index. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: the bomb returns for a second act --Part one: Enduring truths. Game changer -- A most useful weapon -- Llessons of the first nuclear age -- Part two: The new power politics. The new logic of armageddon -- The Middle East -- South Asia -- East Asia -- Part three: The way forward. Have we forgotten too much? -- Global dynamics -- A fifty-year problem -- Conclusion: the maturing second nuclear age.