Britain has decided to renew its nuclear deterrent. A parliamentary vote last month sharply divided the ruling Labor Party, forcing Prime Minister Tony Blair to rely on opposition Conservatives to pass the measure. Mr. Blair made his case by arguing that international uncertainty required Britain to be prepared for all security threats.
And, in the odd logic of nuclear strategy, the prime minister also asserted that building the next generation of nuclear weapons-carrying submarines better enables Britain to push for multilateral disarmament.
Britain has been a nuclear-weapons state since the mid-1950s. After deciding that its nuclear bombers were vulnerable to Soviet air defenses, London moved to a submarine-launch deterrent in 1968. Twelve years later, the British government built its second generation of submarines, the Vanguard class, the first of which was launched in 1992.