Nuclear Orientalism

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of Chapter 2 is to look at the dominant discourses around nuclear weapons and understand their dominance by examining their pictures of reason (Pin-Fat, 2010). The first picture examined is the Realist Deterrence Theory, which articulates nuclear deterrence and nuclear politics through an account of power, geopolitics, and the strategic logic of processes such as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). The second is the Liberal Institutional Theory, the neoliberal approach to theorizing nuclear politics. This holds that institutions and rules can facilitate mutually beneficial effects (Keohane, 2012). This is done by focusing specifically on Pakistan’s appeals to these pictures of reason. With this, there is a clear understanding of the mainstream approach to the rationality of nuclear weapons and how Pakistan attempts to be a part of this. In the second part of this chapter, postcolonial critique of Western rationality and the construction of threats are introduced.