THE WAR THAT MUST NOT OCCUR

JEAN-PIERRE DUPUY, Translated by MALCOLM DEBEVOISE

AT A MOMENT WHEN HUMANITY IS ON THE PRECIPICE OF NUCLEAR CATASTROPHE, JEAN-PIERRE DUPUY CASTS THE PARADOXICAL LOGIC OF NUCLEAR DETERRENCE IN A NEW LIGHT.

The possibility of a nuclear war that could destroy civilization has influenced the course of international affairs since 1945, suspended like a sword of Damocles above the heads of the world’s leaders. The fact that we have escaped a third world war involving strategic nuclear weapons—indeed, that no atomic weapon of limited power has yet been used under battlefield conditions—seems nothing short of a miracle.

Revisiting debates on the effectiveness and ethics of nuclear deterrence, Jean-Pierre Dupuy is led to reformulate some of the most difficult questions in philosophy. He develops a counterintuitive but powerful theory of apocalyptic prophecy: once a major catastrophe appears to be possible, one must assume that it will in fact occur. Dupuy shows that the contradictions and paradoxes riddling discussions of deterrence arise from the tension between two opposite conceptions of time: one in which the future depends on decisions and strategy, and another in which every occurring event is one that could not have failed to occur. Considering the immense destructive power of nuclear warheads and the almost unimaginable ruin they are bound to cause, Dupuy reaches a provocative conclusion: whether they bring about good or evil does not depend on the present or future intentions of those who are in a position to use them. The mere possession of nuclear weapons is a moral abomination.

“Dupuy is our best theorist of catastrophes and his new book is a book for all of us. ”

—Slavoj Žižek,

author of Surplus-Enjoyment

“If we are to postpone nuclear catastrophe indefinitely, Dupuy argues, we must understand that nuclear war is not merely possible but bound to occur. ”

—David Holloway, author of Stalin and the Bomb

“Dupuy provides an extremely important service by bringing much-needed attention to the existential risk that society largely ignored prior to the war in Ukraine and, even now, does not take seriously enough. Highly recommended. ”

—Martin E. Hellman,

winner of the Turing Award

Jean-Pierre Dupuy teaches in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at Stanford University. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy at the École Polytechnique in Paris and formerly Chair of the Ethics Committee of the French High Authority on Nuclear Safety and Security.

SEPTEMBER 2023 192 pages | 5.5 x 8.5

4 figures

Cloth $25.00 (£21.99) HC 9781503635159 eBook 9781503636651

Philosophy and Critical Theory