Author : Ward Wilson
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 24,62 MB
Release : 2013
Category : History
ISBN : 054785787X
Expanded from an article that created a stir in foreign policy circles, this book shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths.
Author : Ward Wilson
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 46,61 MB
Release : 2013-01-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0547858175
“Brilliant, original, and important—the best analysis yet of why nuclear weapons don’t work.” —Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb Nuclear weapons have always been a serious but seemingly insoluble problem: while they’re obviously dangerous, they are also, apparently, necessary. This groundbreaking study shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths. It clears up such common misconceptions as . . . • Nuclear weapons necessarily shock and awe opponents, including Japan at the end of World War II • Nuclear deterrence is reliable in a crisis • Destruction wins wars • The bomb has kept the peace for sixty-five years • We can’t put the nuclear genie back in the bottle Drawing on new information and the latest historical research, Wilson poses a fundamental challenge to the myths on which nuclear weapons policy is currently built. Using pragmatic arguments and an unemotional, clear-eyed insistence on the truth, he arrives at a surprising conclusion: nuclear weapons are enormously dangerous, but don’t appear to be terribly useful. In that case, he asks, why would we want to keep them? This book will be widely read and discussed by everyone who cares about war, peace, foreign policy, and security in the twenty-first century. “Magisterial in its sweep, research, and erudition, yet written in a direct, unstuffy style, which makes it an easy read.” —Commander Robert D. Green, Royal Navy (ret.) “This slim, persuasively argued, tightly written book provides much food for thought and could make some readers radically change their perceptions about nuclear weapons.” —Booklist
Author : George Perkovich
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 676 pages
File Size : 22,60 MB
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520232105
Publisher Fact Sheet The definitive history of India's long flirtation with nuclear capability, culminating in the nuclear tests that surprised the world in May 1998.
Author : Todd S. Sechser
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 21,68 MB
Release : 2017-02-02
Category : History
ISBN : 110710694X
Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? This book argues that they are useful for deterrence but not for offensive purposes.
Author : Gwyneth Cravens
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 23,25 MB
Release : 2010-12-01
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 030726856X
An informed look at the myths and fears surrounding nuclear energy, and a practical, politically realistic solution to global warming and our energy needs. Faced by the world's oil shortages and curious about alternative energy sources, Gwyneth Cravens skeptically sets out to find the truth about nuclear energy. Her conclusion: it is a totally viable and practical solution to global warming. In the end, we see that if we are to care for subsequent generations, embracing nuclear energy is an ethical imperative.
Author : Helen Caldicott
Publisher : The New Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 47,8 MB
Release : 2007-09-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1595585818
The renowned antinuclear activist delivers a “frighteningly convincing argument” against nuclear energy as a solution to climate change (Publishers Weekly). In a world torn apart by wars over oil, politicians have stepped up their search for alternative energy sources—and their leading choice is nuclear energy. But nuclear energy’s popularity as a green alternative is based on misinformation. People claim that nuclear-powered electricity does not cause global warming or pollution, that it is inexpensive, and that it is safe. These claims, as Helen Caldicott demonstrates, are untrue. In Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer, Caldicott digs beneath the nuclear industry’s propaganda to examine the actual costs and environmental consequences of nuclear energy. In fact, nuclear power does contribute to global warming; the cost is prohibitive, with taxpayers picking up most of the tab; there’s not enough uranium in the world to sustain it over the long term; and the potential for a catastrophic accident or a terrorist attack far outweighs any benefits. In concluding chapters, Caldicott details alternative sustainable energy sources that are the key to a clean, green future.
Author : Allan S. Krass
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 325 pages
File Size : 21,28 MB
Release : 2020-11-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 100020054X
Originally published in 1983, this book presents both the technical and political information necessary to evaluate the emerging threat to world security posed by recent advances in uranium enrichment technology. Uranium enrichment has played a relatively quiet but important role in the history of efforts by a number of nations to acquire nuclear weapons and by a number of others to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. For many years the uranium enrichment industry was dominated by a single method, gaseous diffusion, which was technically complex, extremely capital-intensive, and highly inefficient in its use of energy. As long as this remained true, only the richest and most technically advanced nations could afford to pursue the enrichment route to weapon acquisition. But during the 1970s this situation changed dramatically. Several new and far more accessible enrichment techniques were developed, stimulated largely by the anticipation of a rapidly growing demand for enrichment services by the world-wide nuclear power industry. This proliferation of new techniques, coupled with the subsequent contraction of the commercial market for enriched uranium, has created a situation in which uranium enrichment technology might well become the most important contributor to further nuclear weapon proliferation. Some of the issues addressed in this book are: A technical analysis of the most important enrichment techniques in a form that is relevant to analysis of proliferation risks; A detailed projection of the world demand for uranium enrichment services; A summary and critique of present institutional non-proliferation arrangements in the world enrichment industry, and An identification of the states most likely to pursue the enrichment route to acquisition of nuclear weapons.
Author : Sumit Ganguly
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 13,47 MB
Release : 2012-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0295801190
With the nuclearization of the Indian subcontinent, Indo-Pakistani crisis behavior has acquired a deadly significance. The past two decades have witnessed no fewer than six crises against the backdrop of a vigorous nuclear arms race. Except for the Kargil war of 1998-9, all these events were resolved peacefully. Nuclear war was avoided despite bitter mistrust, everyday tensions, an intractable political conflict over Kashmir, three wars, and the steady refinement of each side's nuclear capabilities. Sumit Ganguly and Devin T. Hagerty carefully analyze each crisis, reviewing the Indian and Pakistani domestic political systems and key decisions during the relevant period. This lucid and comprehensive study of the two nations' crisis behavior in the nuclear age is the first work on Indo-Pakistani relations to take systematic account of the role played by the United States in South Asia's security dynamics over the past two decades in the context of unipolarization, and formulates a blueprint for American policy toward a more positive and productive India-Pakistan relationship.
Author : Daniel Ellsberg
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 433 pages
File Size : 50,96 MB
Release : 2017-12-05
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1608196747
Shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for The California Book Award in Nonfiction The San Francisco Chronicle's Best of the Year List Foreign Affairs Best Books of the Year In These Times “Best Books of the Year" Huffington Post's Ten Excellent December Books List LitHub's “Five Books Making News This Week” From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the dangers of America's Top Secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day. Here, for the first time, former high-level defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg reveals his shocking firsthand account of America's nuclear program in the 1960s. From the remotest air bases in the Pacific Command, where he discovered that the authority to initiate use of nuclear weapons was widely delegated, to the secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower, which, if executed, would cause the near-extinction of humanity, Ellsberg shows that the legacy of this most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization--and its proposed renewal under the Trump administration--threatens our very survival. No other insider with high-level access has written so candidly of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, and nothing has fundamentally changed since that era. Framed as a memoir--a chronicle of madness in which Ellsberg acknowledges participating--this gripping exposé reads like a thriller and offers feasible steps we can take to dismantle the existing "doomsday machine" and avoid nuclear catastrophe, returning Ellsberg to his role as whistle-blower. The Doomsday Machine is thus a real-life Dr. Strangelove story and an ultimately hopeful--and powerfully important--book about not just our country, but the future of the world.
Author : Francis J. Gavin
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 45,1 MB
Release : 2012-10-16
Category : History
ISBN : 0801465761
We are at a critical juncture in world politics. Nuclear strategy and policy have risen to the top of the global policy agenda, and issues ranging from a nuclear Iran to the global zero movement are generating sharp debate. The historical origins of our contemporary nuclear world are deeply consequential for contemporary policy, but it is crucial that decisions are made on the basis of fact rather than myth and misapprehension. In Nuclear Statecraft, Francis J. Gavin challenges key elements of the widely accepted narrative about the history of the atomic age and the consequences of the nuclear revolution. On the basis of recently declassified documents, Gavin reassesses the strategy of flexible response, the influence of nuclear weapons during the Berlin Crisis, the origins of and motivations for U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy, and how to assess the nuclear dangers we face today. In case after case, he finds that we know far less than we think we do about our nuclear history. Archival evidence makes it clear that decision makers were more concerned about underlying geopolitical questions than about the strategic dynamic between two nuclear superpowers. Gavin's rigorous historical work not only tells us what happened in the past but also offers a powerful tool to explain how nuclear weapons influence international relations. Nuclear Statecraft provides a solid foundation for future policymaking.
