Raymond Aron began his studies of postwar politics by taking into consideration the impact of the atomic bombing of Japan by the United States. As was true of many strategic thinkers after 1945, he was concerned that the new technology would alter the significance of warfare and thus of politics — because, as a student of Clausewitz, Aron was of the view that war and politics were intimately connected. This paper explores the evolution of Aron’s thinking from 1945 until the 1980s and the development and changes in nuclear strategy. Alone in France, and almost alone in Europe, Aron kept abreast of changes in American nuclear strategy and made some insightful, if commonsensical, analyses of the then secret strategic thinking of the Soviets as well as of the European NATO allies of the United States.
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