Chapter 1. Introduction: Problematizing the Maintenance of Nuclear Weapons.- Chapter 2. Explaining Britain’s Bomb.- Chapter 3. Nuclear Regimes of Truth.- Chapter 4. Constructing the Nuclear Weapon Problem.- Chapter 5. Blair’s Nuclear Regime of Truth.- Chapter 6. Thatcher’s Nuclear Regime of Truth.- Chapter 7. Conclusion: Breaking Down Britain’s Nuclear Regime of Truth & Putting it Back Together Again.

This book investigates the UK’s nuclear weapon policy, focusing in particular on how consecutive governments have managed to maintain the Trident weapon system. The question of why states maintain nuclear weapons typically receives short shrift: its security, of course. The international is a perilous place, and nuclear weapons represent the ultimate self-help device. This book seeks to unsettle this complacency by re-conceptualizing nuclear weapon-armed states as nuclear regimes of truth and refocusing on the processes through which governments produce and maintain country-specific discourses that enable their continued possession of nuclear weapons. Illustrating the value of studying nuclear regimes of truth, the book conducts a discourse analysis of the UK’s nuclear weapons policy between 1980 and 2010. In so doing, it documents the sheer imagination and discursive labour required to sustain the positive value of nuclear weapons within British politics, as well as providing grounds for optimism regarding the value of the recent treaty banning nuclear weapons.Paul Beaumont is Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations/International Environmental Studies and Development from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He has published peer-reviewed articles in Third World Quarterly, Global Affairs, and New Perspectives, policy-orientated research on behalf of the International Law and Policy Institute, and several op-eds in Klassekampen and Aftenposten.

“The book draws inspiration from the Foucauldian concept of 'regimes of truth' and analyses ways in which British governments sought to gain the interpretive primacy over the pro-nuclear deterrent narrative. ... By approaching the British nuclear deterrent via its retention and through discourse analysis, Performing Nuclear Weapons makes an original contribution to the existing research on nuclear weapons … .” (Christoph Laucht, Journal of Peace Research, February 4, 2022)

In this book, Beaumont offers something different and also very good – a discursive history of Britain’s “nuclear common sense.” Essential reading for anyone interested in British defence policy, as well as those interested in nuclear weapons. -- Srdjan Vucetic, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of OttawaPaul Beaumont offers a bold rethinking of how states manage to maintain nuclear weapons. By conducting a discourse analysis of the United Kingdom’s nuclear weapons policy from 1980 to 2010, Beaumont interrogates and critically assess the conventional narratives surrounding the pacifying effects of nuclear weapons, and how states avoid ethical responsibility for their proliferation. The book convincingly demonstrates how much discursive labor has been required to maintain the idea that Britain's nuclear weapons serve a security and status function. Ultimately, the book is a theoretically innovative and empiricallyrich work that provides a novel approach to problematizing nuclear weapons policies. -- Pål Røren, Postdoctoral Fellow, International Politics at the Center for War Studies and Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

Conducts a discourse analysis of the UK’s nuclear weapons policy between 1980 and 2010 Historicizes and deconstructs the moving parts of the UK’s nuclear common sense Provides the theoretical groundwork for future critical investigations into the discursive maintenance of nuclear weapons elsewhere