The Reith Lectures, broadcast each fall by the BBC, rank among the most prestigious public lectures in Britain. Rarely has their subject coincided more directly with public concern than in 1981. Here the full text of Laurence Martin's lectures on the theme of armed conflict in the modern world is printed, with notes and a guide to further reading.

Armed force is the ultimate tool of political conflict. But it is a dangerous tool, a two-edged sword, as likely to cut a careless master as his intended victim. Martin reviews the arguments for and against deterrence and arms control, and the current realities of the nuclear issue. He considers the question of strategic nuclear weapons and the problem of their proliferation, the balance of power in Europe, and the threat of war in the Third World. Above all he exposes the high stakes and acute complexities of the nuclear debate, the difficulties of the unilateralist position, and the dangers of proceeding as if these difficulties did not exist. This is a lively, controversial, and forceful counterblast to utopian disarmament proposals, and essential reading for everyone concerned with the threat of global nuclear conflagration.