This book examines the United States government’s approach to nuclear defense between 1989 and 2009, by analyzing the development and implementation of select post-Cold War policies.

The first portion of the book uses case studies to examine two major prevention and protection policies – strategic arms reduction and national missile defense. These studies suggest that varying stakeholder positions and multiple action channels for national policy development resulted in a patchwork of nuclear defense policies that were uncoordinated, inconsistent, and at times, in conflict.

The second portion of the book explores three prevention, protection, and response implementation studies – threat reduction, maritime radiation detection, and nuclear forensics — within the U.S. Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security. In the context of nuclear defense, research for this portion of the book suggests that a segregated federal design underlay individual department approaches to policy implementation.