“Governare la Bomba”: il comando delle armi nucleari nei sistemi costituzionali del Regno Unito e della Francia

Abstract

“Governing the Bomb”: the command of nuclear weapons in the constitutional systems of the United Kingdom and France – This paper aims to reconstruct the procedures – generally covered by secrecy and little known – with which command and control over the nuclear arsenal is exercised in the only two European states, the United Kingdom and the France, that have had it for decades. All States in possession of these weapons have had to set up decision-making procedures based on a complex framework of relations between civilians and the military in which the final decision on its use is generally recognized by the highest political authority of the country (the head of state or government), while the armed forces have the responsibility to ensure its concrete implementation through operational orders to the units called to directly use atomic weapons. They are also examined the mechanisms by which, in specific and extreme circumstances, the continuity of the chain of command of nuclear weapons is ensured and their accidental use is prevented.