Nuclear Hearts and Minds

Abstract

The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy. By Jacques E. C. Hymans Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 273 pp., $75.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-85076-2), $29.99 paper (ISBN: 0-521-61625-5). Nuclear proliferation is one of the most profound security challenges of the twenty-first century. Jacques Hymans' The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation takes on this issue with an innovative, interdisciplinary approach that centers the study of nuclear proliferation on the hearts and minds of leaders. The book combines a sophisticated theoretical framework and multimethod research design with a rich set of case studies. This is one of those rare academic works published at the very time that it can be most beneficial to both the discipline and the policy arena. Hymans effectively argues that decisions to develop, or not to develop, nuclear weapons are “revolutionary,” subjective, and made by leaders who are conscious that their decisions involve the ultimate weapon. To systematize the study of proliferation at the individual level of analysis, Hymans creates a typology of “national identity conceptions.” He defines a national identity conception as “an individual's understanding of the nation's identity—his or her sense of what the nation naturally stands for and how high it naturally stands, in comparison to others in the international arena” (pp. 12–13). Hymans adds that these identity conceptions derive from “a set of deep-seated, essentially unfalsifiable beliefs about the ‘true’ nature of the nation,” which are developed through comparison and contrast with “key comparison others” (p. 13). National identity conceptions are measured along two dimensions (solidarity and status) that reflect leaders' beliefs about the …