During the Cold War, the superpowers shared a conception of strategic stability. It was for coexistence and a status quo frozen in place by the calculus of mutually assured destruction from nuclear weapons. In short, nuclear weapons promoted great-power peace. The United States made and continues to make its decisions about changes to force posture, risk of escalation, and prospects for arms control with strategic stability in mind. But today's international system is complicated by regional rivalries, rising states, more nuclear powers, asymmetric warfare, and non-state actors. The purpose of this book is to unpack and examine how different states view strategic stability, the use or non-use of nuclear weapons, and whether or not strategic stability is still a useful concept. The contributors to this book examine current and potential nuclear powers including the United States, Russia, China, India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. This book makes an important contribution toward understanding how nuclear weapons will impact the international system in the twenty-first century.

PartI :General approaches to regional stability -- Sources of instability in the second nuclear age : an American perspective / Evan Braden Montgomery -- The Russian approach to strategic stability : preserving a classical formula in a turbulent world / Andrey Pavlov and Anastasia Malygina -- Pakistan's view of strategic stability : a struggle between theory and practice / Sadia Tasleem -- Strategic stability in the Middle East : through the transparency lens / Emily B : Landau -- Beyond strategic stability: deterrence, regional balance and Iranian national security / Annie Tracy Samuel -- Conclusion to partI : Regional approaches to strategic stability / Rajesh Basrur -- partII : Cross-domain deterrence and strategic stability -- Strategic stability and cross-domain coercion : the Russian approach to information (cyber) warfare / Dmitry "Dima" Adamsky -- Conventional challenges to strategic stability : Chinese perceptions of hypersonic technology and the security dilemma / Tong Zhao -- and The India-Pakistan nuclear dyad : strategic stability and cross-domain deterrence / Happymon Jacob -- The road not taken : defining Israel's approach to strategic stability / Ilai Saltzman -- Maintaining sovereignty and preserving the regime : how Saudi Arabia views strategic stability / Ala' Alrababa'h -- Conclusion to partII : Regional variations on deterrence and stability / Jeffrey W : Knopf -- partIII : Findings and implications -- Foreign views of strategic stability and US nuclear posture: the need for tailored strategies / Matthew Kroenig -- Implications for U.S : policy : defending a stable international system / Adam Mount.