The Politics of Nuclear Proliferation: Nuclear History, Strategy, and Statecraft
Nuclear weapons policy from the atomic age to today, taught through MIT's OpenCourseWare materials. The course lays out the basics of nuclear weapons design and deterrence theory before turning to the historical record: the US-Soviet arms race, crisis moments like Cuba, and the strategic logic that kept the Cold War cold. It then follows proliferation outward to regional powers such as India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea, asking why some states built bombs, others stopped short, and what deterrence looks like outside the US-Soviet context. Materials include the full syllabus, reading lists drawn from historians and strategists, and assignments used in the MIT classroom version of the course. No lectures are recorded, but the readings and problem sets give a full grounding in nuclear strategy and statecraft for anyone working through the material independently. Free to access through MIT OpenCourseWare, with no certificate offered.