Shadow Over Europe

Professor Laurence Martin, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, considers the strategic policy of the nuclear age in his series of Reith Lectures 'The Two-Edged Sword'

In his third lecture entitled 'Shadow over Europe', Professor Martin explores the strategic and political implications of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union for Europe. Can Europe survive in the fault-line between American and European interests? Professor Martin explains that nuclear deterrence depends on more than just nuclear weapons: it also depends on the proper marriage of those weapons to the infrastructure of military' and political power.