The possession and use of nuclear weapons in the Middle East is a topic of vital concern to states in that region and the wider international community. The end of the Cold War has placed the threat of nuclear proliferation at the top of the international community's agenda of concerns. Israel already possesses nuclear weapons, but this is a position that has generated very real concerns and dilemmas for that country. Yair Evron opens his book with an account of the development of Israel's nuclear capability and the internal disagreements within the Israeli military elite over how nuclear policy should be conducted. There is analysis of reactions from Arab states and how, with the exception of Iraq, they have so far refrained from developing their own nuclear weapons. Evron also discusses Iraq's nuclear effort and current status. He argues that, until the present, Israel's assumed nuclear capacity has had little relevance to major Arab decisions on war and peace. The book also tackles the questions of whether Israel should adopt an explicit, rather than ambiguous nuclear posture, and whether a stable balance of nuclear deterrence could evolve in the Middle East.