Autonomy And Leverage:Development Policies On Nuclear Deterrent By Margaret Thatcher Administration In Britain

Britain's new generation of nuclear deterrent was in the stage of considering and decision-making soon after Margaret Thatcher Administration just came into office on May 1979.In the 1970 s,the disparity of nuclear weapons based on the quantity and quality between the Soviet Union and the United States was almost disappeared,reaching a strategic balance on the basis of mutual containment.The Soviet Union's superiority over Europe in terms of tactical nuclear forces and conventional military forces had intensified the Conservative Party's strategic concerns.In the middle and late 1970 s,there were differences in the attitude of the Labour Party towards nuclear strategy.The left wing strongly opposed the possession of nuclear weapons,while the Central-right wing insisted on maintaining Britain's existing nuclear deterrent capability.In order to unite the Labour Party and avoid making the party's divergence on nuclear opinion public,the Wilson-Callahan Administration,on the one hand,no longer overemphasized the value of British nuclear deterrence,promised not to upgrade the existing nuclear deterrent,on the other hand,secretly promoted the improvement of warhead system on the serving Polaris missile,and tried to purchase a new sea-based submarine launched ballistic missile from the United States.The Conservative Party,which had always supported Britain to maintain an advanced nuclear deterrent,was dissatisfied with the "conservatism" of the Labour Party government for the development policy on the nuclear force.In the mid-1960 s,Britain started a relatively independent project about missile improvement.When the Labour Party government came to power in the 1970 s,the project was named Chevaline.At the end of 1970 s,although the project made some progress,the investment was far more than expected,which objectively weakened the confidence of the Thatcher Administration to independently develop new missiles.Therefore,the change of the strategic situation between the United States and the Soviet Union,the negative development policy of the Labour Party government for nuclear deterrent,and the sharp increase in the cost of independently developing missiles,profoundly affected the Thatcher Administration's decision on the development of a new nuclear deterrent.During the Thatcher Administration,the development of Britain's nuclear deterrent was in a transitional period of generational alternation.It was put on the agenda to replace the active Polaris submarine launched missile system and independently plan a new nuclear deterrent.While planning the replacement of Polaris missile,the Thatcher Administration had multiple elections for the future British nuclear deterrent.After weighing the pros and cons,it was considered that the nuclear deterrent development scheme of submarine launched ballistic missile was most in line with the national interests.The US Trident I C4 missile was a submarine launched missile with advanced performance and served in the US Navy at that time.By virtue of the special alliance between Britain and the United States,Thatcher Administration secretly reached an arms sales agreement with the Carter government of the United States.During the Reagan Administration,based on the future economic cost,military strategy and Anglo-American relations,Thatcher Administration decided to abandon C4 missile and purchase Trident II D5 missile.On the one hand,the modernization policy of Britain's nuclear deterrent development was embodied in the independent planning of the alternative project of "Polaris" missile,which would prevent Britain from being marginalized in the nuclear cooperation between Britain and the United States,ensure that Britain continues to have valuable strategic nuclear resources,and consolidate Britain's strategic position and power image;on the other hand,it sought to purchase advanced Trident II D5 missiles from the United States,which would enhance Britain's ability to deal with the Soviet nuclear threat and strengthen Britain's position in the NATO system,but also tear the security consensus of British society.When formulating the policy of nuclear deterrence force development,Thatcher Administration tried to achieve the goal of cost optimization by balancing the advantages and disadvantages,and trying to obtain the best benefits with the minimum investment.On the basis of the national interests,the Thatcher Administration adhered to the moderate and effective principle and formulated independently the policy of development for the future nuclear deterrent.On the price of Trident missile,Britain and the United States had a fierce bargain.The Thatcher Administration tried to buy Trident missile from the United States at the most economical cost.Thatcher Administration's way of developing new nuclear deterrent to replace the "Polaris" was mainly to seek cooperation with other countries.However,whether Britain conducted some kind of cooperation on strategic arms with France or with the United States,it would produce risk costs.In order to minimize the risk cost,Britain chose the United States rather than France in strategic arms cooperation.On the one hand,it was embodied that the cost optimization policy on UK's nuclear deterrence force development was to sustain a moderate and effective nuclear deterrence force.On the premise of having the effectiveness of nuclear deterrence,Thatcher Administration made the independent decision and did not seek blindly and greedily for bigger nuclear forces;on the other hand,the cost optimization policy was also embodied that with the help of external forces Thatcher Administration purchased Trident missiles from the United States at the minimum economic cost and risk cost so as to obtain high cost performance ratio.As for the international negotiations for nuclear arms control,on the one hand,the Thatcher Administration actively supported the bilateral talks between the two nuclear powers,urging the two countries to reduce the number and scale of nuclear weapons.On the other hand,it resolutely defended the critical number of its own nuclear weapons and was unwilling to cross the threshold of nuclear abandonment.The policy of avoiding arms control in the development of British nuclear deterrent was embodied in Thatcher's government's resolute opposition to unilateral nuclear disarmament in Britain based on the realistic position.This was in line with the British national interests,ensured the continuous development of the new generation of British nuclear deterrent,and also showed the determination of Britain's refusal to join the US-Soviet negotiations on nuclear arms control.At the same time,Thatcher Administration found a balance between unconditional participation in nuclear arms control and refusal of nuclear arms control,that was to say,it participated in international nuclear arms control with preconditions that before the United States and the Soviet Union reduced nuclear weapons on a large scale,Britain would not participate the U.S.-U.S.S.R.negotiation on nuclear arms control and insist on maintaining the minimum independent nuclear deterrent status.This contributed to shaping the national image of Britain supporting arms control,and also could avoid British nuclear deterrents becoming a bargaining chip in the negotiations for nuclear arms control between US and Soviet.Autonomy and leverage were the basic characteristics of Thatcher Administration's nuclear deterrence development policy,which was embodied in both the content of the policy and the process of its formulation.On the one hand,the Thatcher Administration insisted on the independent status in policy formulation of nuclear deterrence force development.It gave priority to the development of nuclear deterrence in policy,which not only avoided the impact of opposition parties on British nuclear deterrence development policy,but also was wary of the potential impact of the United States on the independent development of British nuclear deterrent.On the other hand,in virtue of levering or balancing these two countries of US and Soviet,the Thatcher Administration took advantage of contradictions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the cold war to help enhance the British nuclear deterrent.It regarded the Soviet threat as the legitimate excuse for formulating the policy of developing the nuclear deterrent and took anti-Soviet as the driving force for the renewal of the British nuclear deterrent.For the Thatcher Administration,catering to the US diplomacy became the guarantee of development policy on the nuclear deterrent,and cooperating with US was the backup force of that policy.In this anti-Soviet and pro-American process,Britain strived for the support of the European countries in NATO for the development of nuclear deterrence force,so as to create a favorable political atmosphere for anti-Soviet Union and pro-American.Generally speaking,the Thatcher Administration was based on the defense strategy of nuclear deterrence and independently planed a new nuclear deterrent.Whether or not to modernize the nuclear deterrent,how to develop it,and how to get rid of the influence of nuclear disarmament talks between America and the Soviet Union on the development of British nuclear deterrent,all became the core issues that the government had always considered.When the Thatcher Administration planned the development of new nuclear deterrent,the United States supported Britain without scruple.Because It was based on the requirements of American national interests to balance power,threat and interests of the Soviet Union.The Thatcher Administration successfully used the means of autonomy and leverage in the development of new nuclear deterrence force.It not only insisted on independence,but also obtained the support from the United States.The reason is that Britain and the United States had found a common point acceptable to each other in deeply understanding and effectively resolving their respective alliance dilemma.That was to say,the United States was willing to give limited support to Britain which had been insisting on autonomy,and Britain tried to maintain its independent status on the basis of moderate compromise toward the United States.