1982 - Michael Howard - Weapons and Peace

In this lecture Michael Howard discussed the relationship between the maintenance of national armaments, especially nuclear armaments, and the preservation of international peace. He offered a critique of those who believe that increasing nuclear weapons will lead to greater instability in the international system. He noted that an essential requirement of peace was order, but not any order. There will be status quo powers for whom the international system is satisfactory, but also revisionist states for whom it is not. This imbalance leads to international instability and is a far larger threat to peace than an increase in armaments as such. Thus, peace must mean the maintenance and incremental improvement of the existing international order. He also discussed the role of bellicist states, or those that see war as a natural or superior way to settle contentious issues. Thus, armaments themselves do not create a threat to peace, especially those who believe that an increase in the number of armaments will destabilise the system. Instead, it is the high cost of a nuclear strike from the other side that makes it difficult to conceive of any political objective that would warrant the cost. This nuclear dread is what will keep the system stable and drive states to the conference table.