Political Fallout is the story of one of the first human-driven, truly global environmental crises—radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War—and the international response. Beginning in 1945, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union detonated hundreds of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, scattering a massive amount of radioactivity across the globe. The scale of contamination was so vast, and radioactive decay so slow, that the cumulative effect on humans and the environment is still difficult to fully comprehend.
The international debate over nuclear fallout turned global radioactive contamination into an environmental issue, eventually leading the nuclear superpowers to sign the landmark Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in 1963. Bringing together environmental history and Cold War history, Toshihiro Higuchi argues that the PTBT, originally proposed as an arms control measure, transformed into a dual-purpose initiative to check the nuclear arms race and radioactive pollution simultaneously. Higuchi draws on sources in English, Russian, and Japanese, considering both the epistemic differences that emerged in different scientific communities in the 1950s and the way that public consciousness around the risks of radioactive fallout influenced policy in turn. Political Fallout addresses the implications of science and policymaking in the Anthropocene—an era in which humans are confronting environmental changes of their own making.
Political Fallout is the story of one of the first human-driven, truly global environmental crises—radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War—and the international response. Beginning in 1945, the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union detonated hundreds of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, scattering a massive amount of radioactivity across the globe. The scale of contamination was so vast, and radioactive decay so slow, that the cumulative effect on humans and the environment is still difficult to fully comprehend.
The international debate over nuclear fallout turned global radioactive contamination into an environmental issue, eventually leading the nuclear superpowers to sign the landmark Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in 1963. Bringing together environmental history and Cold War history, Toshihiro Higuchi argues that the PTBT, originally proposed as an arms control measure, transformed into a dual-purpose initiative to check the nuclear arms race and radioactive pollution simultaneously. Higuchi draws on sources in English, Russian, and Japanese, considering both the epistemic differences that emerged in different scientific communities in the 1950s and the way that public consciousness around the risks of radioactive fallout influenced policy in turn. Political Fallout addresses the implications of science and policymaking in the Anthropocene—an era in which humans are confronting environmental changes of their own making.
Описание: The atomic bomb was the unnecessary product of mistrust and deceit between World War II allies--resulting in a threat of nuclear war that still haunts us today. Between December 1943 and August 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill ignited the Cold War by building an atomic bomb, even though they were confident by then that Germany, the notional target of the bomb, had no weapon of its own. Nevertheless, a series of lies, pretenses and deceptions between the Allies resulted in the most dangerous killing machine in history. The Americans did not tell the UK that the atomic research was compromised by Soviet spies; the British did not tell the Americans that in 1943 they knew for sure that Germany did not have a nuclear bomb program. And neither country admitted this to the scientists developing the bomb. Had they done so, many of the scientists, knowing the destructive power of the bomb, would have refused to build it. Peter Watson recounts this pulse-pounding story of military overreach, which led to the development of an unnecessary weapon that, once it existed, was inevitably going to be deployed. He shows how politicians fatally failed to understand the nature of atomic science and, in so doing, needlessly exposed the world to great danger--a danger that is still very much with us today.
Автор: Betts Название: Duncan Sandys and British Nuclear Policy-Making ISBN: 1137585463 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781137585462 Издательство: Springer Рейтинг: Цена: 16070.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: This book offers new perspectives on British nuclear policy-making at the height of the Cold War, arguing that the decisions taken by the British government during the 1950s and 1960s in pursuit of its nuclear ambitions cannot be properly understood without close reference to Duncan Sandys, and in particular the policy preferences that emerged from his experiences of the Second World War and his efforts leading Britain's campaign against the V-1 and V-2. Immersing himself in this campaign against unmanned weaponry, Sandys came to see ballistic missiles as the only guarantor of nuclear credibility in the post-war world, placing them at the centre of his strategic thinking and developing a sincerely-held and logically-consistent belief system which he carried with him through a succession of ministerial roles, allowing him to exert a previously undocumented level of influence on the nature of Britain's nuclear capabilities and its approach to the Cold War. This book shows the profound influence Sandys' personal belief system had on Britain's attempts to acquire a credible nuclear deterrent.
Автор: Feroz Khan Название: Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb ISBN: 0804776008 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780804776004 Издательство: Wiley EDC Рейтинг: Цена: 13900.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание:
The history of Pakistan's nuclear program is the history of Pakistan. Fascinated with the new nuclear science, the young nation's leaders launched a nuclear energy program in 1956 and consciously interwove nuclear developments into the broader narrative of Pakistani nationalism. Then, impelled first by the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan Wars, and more urgently by India's first nuclear weapon test in 1974, Pakistani senior officials tapped into the country's pool of young nuclear scientists and engineers and molded them into a motivated cadre committed to building the 'ultimate weapon.' The tenacity of this group and the central place of its mission in Pakistan's national identity allowed the program to outlast the perennial political crises of the next 20 years, culminating in the test of a nuclear device in 1998.
Written by a 30-year professional in the Pakistani Army who played a senior role formulating and advocating Pakistan's security policy on nuclear and conventional arms control, this book tells the compelling story of how and why Pakistan's government, scientists, and military, persevered in the face of a wide array of obstacles to acquire nuclear weapons. It lays out the conditions that sparked the shift from a peaceful quest to acquire nuclear energy into a full-fledged weapons program, details how the nuclear program was organized, reveals the role played by outside powers in nuclear decisions, and explains how Pakistani scientists overcome the many technical hurdles they encountered. Thanks to General Khan's unique insider perspective, it unveils and unravels the fascinating and turbulent interplay of personalities and organizations that took place and reveals how international opposition to the program only made it an even more significant issue of national resolve.
Автор: Laucht Название: Elemental Germans ISBN: 0230354874 ISBN-13(EAN): 9780230354876 Издательство: Springer Рейтинг: Цена: 12157.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: Christoph Laucht offers the first investigation into the roles played by two German-born emigre atomic scientists, Klaus Fuchs and Rudolf Peierls, in the development of British nuclear culture, especially the practice of nuclear science and the political implications of the atomic scientists` work, from the start of the Second World War until 1959.
Описание: This collection of essays offers a fresh look at the 1970s, the crucial decade when the nuclear non-proliferation regime took shape.
Автор: Betts Lewis Название: Duncan Sandys and British Nuclear Policy-Making ISBN: 1349843962 ISBN-13(EAN): 9781349843961 Издательство: Springer Рейтинг: Цена: 13974.00 р. Наличие на складе: Есть у поставщика Поставка под заказ.
Описание: 1. Introduction.- 2. The Intellectual Foundations of Sandys' Belief System.- 3. The Ministry of Supply and the Radical Review, 1953-54.- 4. The 1957 Defence White Paper.- 5. The Struggle Over the Nuclear Delivery System, 1957-1960.- 6. Blue Streak.- 7. Conclusion.
