Nuclear Arms,Moral Questions,And Religious Issues

The morality of nuclear strategy is one of the most engaging issues in the U.S. political debate today. Among its more interesting facets is the unprecedented intervention of religious hierarchies and churches on issues traditionally considered extraecclesial. By and large, the religious response has been largely critical of U.S. nuclear policy. In being so, it has also triggered an intense search for a variety of "utopian" solutions aimed at securing "comprehensive and total nuclear disarmament." Rooted in the realist tradition, this article critiques this utopian quest by suggesting that any satisfactory solution to the nuclear dilemma must contain an ethic of both purity and responsibility. Toward that end, the pacifist and contextualist responses to the questions of justice and force are analyzed, and some policy recommendations in the pastoral letter The Challenge of Peace are examined in the light of the fundamental strategic problems confronting American defense policy.