The Future of Deterrent Capability for Medium-Sized Western Powers in the New Environment

What should be the longer-term future for the nuclear-weapons capabilities of France and the United Kingdom? I plan to tackle the subject in concrete terms. My presentation will be divided into three parts, and, though they are distinct rather than separate, they interact extensively. The first and largest part will relate to strategic context and concept: what aims, justifications and limitations should guide the future, or the absence of a future, for our capabilities? The second part, a good deal briefer, will be the practical content and character of the capabilities: what questions for decision will arise, and in what timescale, about the preservation, improvement or adjustment of the present capabilities? And the third part, still more briefly, will concern the political and institutional framework into which their future should or might be fitted. (author)