Nuclear weapons Books

Book SynopsisDrawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and the aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices, detonated over Japan, changed life on Earth forever. To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, “you are there” time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written. At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi’s office conference was convened—placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them. Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the “official report,” showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why. Also available from compatible vendors is an enhanced e-book version containing never-before-seen video clips of the survivors, their descendants, and the cities as they are today. Filmed by the author during his research in Japan, these 18 videos are placed throughout the text, taking readers beyond the page and offering an eye-opening and personal way to understand how the effects of the atomic bombs are still felt 70 years after detonation.Trade Review"The nuclear weapons of today make the ones detonated in 1945 look like firecrackers, and more and more countries possess them or threaten to do so. . . . The virtue of [this book] is the reminder of just how horrible nuclear weapons are." * The Wall Street Journal *On the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pellegrino’s (Farewell, Titanic: Her Final Legacy, 2012, etc.) account of the survivors—a book recalled and pulped in 2010 by its original publisher after doubts about the authenticity of the claims made by one of the author’s sources—now appears in a revised edition. After the atomic devastation of Aug. 6, 1945, in Hiroshima, a surviving father told his daughter: “Thank God we have relatives in Nagasaki. We will be safe there.” Based on interviews, memoirs, archival research, and new reporting, Pellegrino’s narrative is as riveting and powerful as John Hersey’s classic Hiroshima (1946). Recounting graphically detailed stories of the hibakusha (exposed), including double survivors who experienced the bombings of both cities, the author conjures a hellish landscape: we see “flash-burned” images on roads, people dissolving into gas and desiccated carbon, a man seemingly tap-dancing on feetless legs, and men, women, and children “degloved,” their skin pulled off by the wind. Much of the focus is on Hiroshima, which “was converted to a lake of yellowish boiling dust, left behind by a billowing red cloud that rose at impossible speed.” There, thousands of people “lived on the cusp of instantaneous nonexistence, on the verge of dying before it was possible to realize they were about to die.” Others lingered with radiation disease, dying most often from cancer; some survived for many years with nightmares and psychological damage. The second, more powerful bomb actually missed Nagasaki, obliterating an adjacent suburb. As in Hiroshima, some people were vaporized; others, sufficiently sheltered, went unharmed. Concerned mainly with ordinary people whose lives were changed in a “split second catastrophe,” Pellegrino also narrates the heartbreaking stories of the U.S. pilots (“My God, what have we done?” wrote one) and the many atomic orphans, as well as the origin of paper cranes fashioned by survivors as messages of hope. This is horrifying, painful, and necessary reading. * Kirkus *A book that everybody should be reading on the occasion of President Obama’s non-apology tour of Hiroshima is Charles Pellegrino’s To Hell and Back. It’s a meticulous reconstruction of the immediate aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the perspective of the victims. It depicts, as the title implies, an utter hellscape of dazed survivors threading their way through the blasted landscape in ant-like lines to nowhere amid flickering whirlwinds of flame, human ash and bone, rivers of corpses, clouds of flies; and slow death brought on by desperate thirst, blast, burn, and radiation injuries, and the longer terms effects of radiation exposure. . . . Indeed, removing memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has been the top priority, especially for American nuclear denialists who resent detailed reporting of the horrors of the atomic bombings and any implication that the US should feel any qualms about what it did. * Asia Times *Pellegrino’s book is a moving and grueling close-up look at the horrors experienced by the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both on the day of the bombing and in the days and years afterward. . . . There are few opportunities for inspiring ‘triumph of the human spirit’ narratives amid the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings were titanic, apocalyptic events that mock human scale and comprehension. . . . Nevertheless, Pellegrino documents instances of courage, compassion, and ingenuity and people sustaining their humanity through acts of love and sacrifice. * The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus *I have travelled with Pellegrino to Japan to visit survivors of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, and to consult with officials and historians there. Among that community he is well respected and considered an important voice for the history of these events. Pellegrino combines intense forensic detail—some of it new to history—with unfathomable heartbreak. The author unflinchingly chronicles these most devastating events in Japan, the only times nuclear weapons have been used against human beings, and begs us to hold hands and to pray that it never happens again. A must-read for anyone with a conscience. -- James Cameron, director, producer, engineer, and explorerBy far the best book I have ever read on the subject. . . . No one I know has ever articulated more fully, more accurately, and more effectively the essential nature of the atomic bombings. A great book—a potential game-changer in the struggle to eliminate nuclear weapons. -- Steven Leeper, Hiroshima Jogakuin University, former chair of the Hiroshima Peace Culture FoundationThe book opens with imagery that leaves one speechless. Pellegrino is a poet at heart, a poet with a Japanese soul. -- Francis Kakugawa, poet, Hiroshima family memberDrawing on his considerable scholarly skills as well as his poetic sensibility, Charles Pellegrino has greatly enlarged our understanding of the singular tragedy that was—and is—Hiroshima. The pages themselves seem to weep, drenched as they are in poignancy, passion, and a salutary measure of unbearable truth. -- James Morrow, author of Shambling Towards Hiroshima and This Is the Way the World EndsI just finished reading the book again. Each time I take the journey, the words leave a stronger impression—the most important piece of literature written about the hibakusha (the exposed) since John Hershey’s Hiroshima. -- Paule Savinio, author of From AboveCharles Pellegrino’s writings have provided critical information, particularly on the first twenty-four hours after the nuclear explosion in Hiroshima. This information has added significantly [to our] knowledge and understanding about the medical and pathological events of the early period after the nuclear event. In turn, this information has allowed the development of a plan that could potentially save thousands of lives if another nuclear explosion, similar to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, occurs. Our military believes that this is inevitable. -- Norman Ende, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Rutgers, New Jersey Medical SchoolPellegrino fills this fascinating work with dark revelations, incredible imagery, and unforgettable characters. With a scientist's eye for detail, the author sets the record straight about what actually happened. So forget what you thought you knew about the August 1945 atomic bombings and their aftermath. This book is the definitive account. -- Bill Schutt, American Museum of Natural HistoryDuring my forty years as a senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, including thirty years of collaboration with Charlie Pellegrino, I have always found him to be a careful, thoughtful, imaginative, and honest researcher. I was involved in R&D on applications of fission and fusion nuclear energy [for] nuclear rockets, and Charlie and I collaborated on a next step: Interstellar probe designs based on anti-matter propulsion. -- James Powell, Brookhaven National LaboratoryLet's hope this book touches the hearts of the many and that such extreme methods of societal control are finally eliminated. . . . A monumental work. -- Roy Cullimore, founder and president, Droycon BioconceptsCharles Pellegrino's unique forensic archaeological approach . . . should be required reading for all those making decisions of war. Despite past attempts to suppress this history, Charles has succeeded in a detailed immortalization of one of the true turning points in human existence. -- Tom Dettweiler, NOAA ocean explorer and engineer, US NavyBefore reading this, I believed we should be prepared to do unto others as they would do unto us and do it first. I was wrong. I did not really know what an atomic bomb does (to the people beneath it). I believe anyone who even considers the first use of a nuclear weapon (or who designs one), has found the unforgivable sin. -- Amnon Rosenfeld, forensic anthropologist, Israel Geological SurveyThis can be a powerful wake-up call for some of the younger generation—that rare combination of scientific expertise and profound humanism. -- Mark Selden, Asia Pacific Studies, Cornell UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Foreword Chapter 1: The Killing Star Chapter 2: Gojira’s Egg Chapter 3: Setsuko Chapter 4: And the Rest Were Neutrinos Chapter 5: The Crazy Iris Chapter 6: Kaiten and the Faithful Elephants Chapter 7: A Vapor in the Heavens Chapter 8: Threads Chapter 9: Testament Chapter 10: Legacy: To Fold a Thousand Paper Cranes Acknowledgments Notes Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisAnnie Jacobsen the bestselling author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. A 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist, her other books include Area 51, Operation Paperclip and Surprise, Kill, Vanish, and have been translated into 26 languages. She also writes and produces TV, including Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. A graduate of Princeton University, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two sons.

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Book SynopsisThe Titan II ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) program was developed by the United States military to bolster the size, strength, and speed of the nation's strategic weapons arsenal in the 1950s and 1960s. Each missile carried a single warhead―the largest in U.S. inventory―used liquid fuel propellants, and was stored and launched from hardened underground silos. The missiles were deployed at basing facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Kansas and remained in active service for over twenty years. Since military deactivation in the early 1980s, the Titan II has served as a reliable satellite launch vehicle. This is the richly detailed story of the Titan II missile and the men and women who developed and operated the system. David K. Stumpf uses a wide range of sources, drawing upon interviews with and memoirs by engineers and airmen as well as recently declassified government documents and other public materials. Over 170 drawings and photographs, most of which have never been published, enhance the narrative. The three major accidents of the program are described in detail for the first time using authoritative sources. Titan II will be welcomed by librarians for its prodigious reference detail, by technology history professionals and laymen, and by the many civilian and Air Force personnel who were involved in the program―a deterrent weapons system that proved to be successful in defending America from nuclear attack.Trade ReviewThe author breaks new ground on the history of the Titan II weapon system, both from the perspective of technological achievement and from the viewpoint of human drama. . . . [A] masterpiece of scholarly research." —Rick W. Sturdevant Staff Historian, USAF"By far the most detailed account of Titan II history, the book is based on extensive research in official Air Force histories, archival sources, conference papers, personal interviews and correspondence with participants in the program, and documents provided by participants. It is lavishly illustrated and provides highly useful reference source that should be acquired by every research library. … [A]nyone interested in the history of strategic weapons or rocketry should welcome [Stumpf’s] labor of love in producing this handsome and detailed study." —J.D. Hunley, The Journal of Military History, July 2001

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Book SynopsisThis is the untold story of the small group of men who have devised the plans and shaped the policies on how to use the Bomb. The book (first published in 1983) explores the secret world of these strategists of the nuclear age and brings to light a chapter in American political and military history never before revealed.Trade Review“An intensely important subject....Kaplan makes it absorbing, and what is more, comprehensible.”—Barbara Tuchman

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Book SynopsisIn the spring of 1945 the Allies arrested the physicists they believed had worked on the German nuclear programme during the war. Interned in an English country house, their conversations were secretly recorded. MI6's Operation Epsilon sought to determine how close Nazi Germany had come to building an atomic bomb. It was in this remote setting - Farm Hall, near Cambridge - that the German physicists first heard of the bombing ofHiroshima. August 6 1945 was a night that changed the course of history. The terrible weapon unleashed on Japan caused unprecedented destruction and loss of life. That the Allies had such a weapon at their disposal came as a great shock to the German scientists who had worked under the assumption that the Allies knew nothing of nuclear fission. This is the story of the wartime race to develop an atomic bomb, and the genius, guilt, complicity and hubris of Nobel Prize-winning scientists working to create a weapon that would undoubtedly have won the war for the Germans.

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Book SynopsisNarrates how two charismatic, exceptionally talented physicists - J Robert Oppenheimer and Hans A Bethe - came to terms with the nuclear weapons they helped to create. This work tells the story of modern physics, the development of atomic weapons, and the Cold War.Trade Review"An absorbing investigation of how the two physicists, each formidable in his own way, attempted to shoulder responsibility for their creation."--The New Yorker "There is merit to Schweber's contrasting portraits of Oppenheimer and Bethe... Trained as a physicist, Schweber is the first biographer to explain the significance of the scientific work that Oppenheimer and Bethe did--a fascinating topic in itself."--Gregg Herken, American Scientist "The author of this book studied physics with J. Robert Oppenheimer and Hans Bethe. His remarkably clear account of their rise to intellectual leadership in the 1930's pulses with an insider's love. Mostly, however, S. S. Schweber writes as a historian and philosopher of science, elegantly exploring the morally fractured stories of American physicists transformed by the Cold War."--John M. Staudenmaier, The Historian "In the Shadow of the Bomb is a rare example of a successful hybrid work... Schweber entwines issues of science, technology, ethics, and politics in a relatively seamless manner, bringing in each lens of analysis at the appropriate time... [He] presents a model of how to write respectfully of individuals while portraying them as fallible human beings in a complex cultural, political, intellectual, and scientific context."--Russell Olwell, Technology & Culture "For a world in which scientific power must be checked by visionary words linked to prudent politics, Schweber has written a book of compelling insight."--Booklist "Schweber is to be commended for pulling together, with comprehensive referencing, many of the relevant events in the interlocking sagas of Oppenheimer and Bethe... Bethe is the dominant figure in this volume, and Schweber knows and describes him well."--Sidney D. Drell, Physics Today "Silvan Schweber [worries] about the gap between moral ideals and moral realities among scientists who brought the Atomic Age into being and who lived with its postwar consequences... In the Shadow of the Bomb ...contrasts Bethe's exemplary conduct with Oppenheimer's moral ambiguity."--Steven Shapin, London Review of Books "[A] fascinating account... [It offers] gripping accounts that capture the essence of an era through panoramic detail."--Nicole Johnston, The Globe and Mail "[A] book, well footnoted and scholarly, that poses fundamental moral and ethical questions and seeks their answers through examination of the lives of Oppenheimer and Bethe. This is very much a book for current times..."--Choice "Schweber's book ... offers intriguing insights into the creativity of [Robert Oppenheimer and Hans Bethe] and the shaping of their moral outlooks in the atomic age. How they balanced the ethical equation between uncovering truths about nature and inventing the most terrible weapons of mass destruction makes for fascinating reading."--PD Smith, The Guardian UnlimitedTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii INTRODUCTION 3 1. WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT? 28 2. J. ROBERT OPPENHEIMER 42 Oppenheimer and the Ethical Culture Movement 42 The Agenda of the Ethical Culture Society 46 The Teaching of Ethics at the School 50 The Maturation of Oppenheimer 53 Becoming a Physicist: Oppenheimer and His School 61 3. HANS BETHE 76 Becoming a Bildungstrager 76 Becoming a Physicist: Arnold Sommerfeld 87 Wholeness and Stability 91 Los Alamos 104 Bethe and Oppenheimer: Their Entanglement 107 4.THE CHALLENGE OF McCARTHYISM 115 The Bernard Peters Case 115 The Philip Morrison Case 130 Some Concluding Comments 146 5.NUCLEAR WEAPONS 149 Atomic Bombs 149 Hydrogen Bombs 156 PSAC and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 168 6.ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY 178 EPILOGUE 183 Notes to the Chapters 187 Bibliography 239 Index 257

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Book SynopsisAre nuclear arsenals safe from cyber-attack? Could terrorists launch a nuclear weapon through hacking? Are we standing at the edge of a major technological challenge to global nuclear order? These are among the many pressing security questions addressed in Andrew Futter’s ground-breaking study of the cyber threat to nuclear weapons. Hacking the Bomb provides the first ever comprehensive assessment of this worrying and little-understood strategic development, and it explains how myriad new cyber challenges will impact the way that the world thinks about and manages the ultimate weapon. The book cuts through the hype surrounding the cyber phenomenon and provides a framework through which to understand and proactively address the implications of the emerging cyber-nuclear nexus. It does this by tracing the cyber challenge right across the nuclear weapons enterprise, explains the important differences between types of cyber threats, and unpacks how cyber capabilities will impact strategic thinking, nuclear balances, deterrence thinking, and crisis management. The book makes the case for restraint in the cyber realm when it comes to nuclear weapons given the considerable risks of commingling weapons of mass disruption with weapons of mass destruction, and argues against establishing a dangerous norm of “hacking the bomb.” This timely book provides a starting point for an essential discussion about the challenges associated with the cyber-nuclear nexus, and will be of great interest to scholars and students of security studies as well as defense practitioners and policy makers.Trade ReviewA compelling analysis of how information systems associated with nuclear weapons might be vulnerable, what adversaries might do with such vulnerabilities and what all this might mean for strategic stability. * Survival *In this outstanding survey, Andrew Futter explores how the 'cyber challenge' might interact with the nuclear enterprise in general, and nuclear deterrence in particular. . . . To his credit, Futter avoids the hyperbole often used to characterize the cyber threat. His two-level characterization of the cyber challenge (i.e., context and operations) also brings analytical clarity to a subject that lacks a common taxonomy. * The Nonproliferation Review *Futter’s valuable book surveys the new dangers and also considers how states might deter cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. He stresses the importance of securing sensitive nuclear information and of keeping control systems as simple as possible and separating them from other networks. * Foreign Affairs *Will resonate well with those interested in nuclear weapons and cyber threats alike. For all others, the content serves as a well-researched point of reference for the intersection of these two ever-present topics in the modern security landscape. * Proceedings *This book is necessary, it is useful, it illustrates where the errors and the loop holes are. Will it actually save us from our selves? Who knows, but hopefully some of the more basic ways of doing so could perhaps be tightened up? * Irish Tech News *Introduces an important puzzle at an extremely relevant time . . . has the potential to be a significant contribution to our limited understanding of the impact of cyber operations on nuclear stability. * H-Diplo *Futter’s Hacking the Bomb is a must-read for any policymaker and defense theorist. The cyber domain touches everything, and defense professionals must integrate it into all policies. * H-War *Futter’s book reminds us that the world needs norms, for cyber activities in general and for the nuclear-cyber relationship in particular. * H-War *Table of ContentsForeword by The Rt. Hon. Lord Browne of Ladyton Acknowledgments Introduction: WarGames Redux? Part 1: The Nature of the Challenge 1. What Exactly Do We Mean by the Cyber Challenge? 2. How and Why Might Nuclear Systems Be Vulnerable? Part 2: What Might Hackers Do to Nuclear Systems? 3. Stealing Nuclear Secrets 4. Could Cyberattcks Lead to Nuclear Use or Stop Systems from Working? Part 3: The Cyber-Nuclear Nexus at the Strategic Level 5. Cyberdeterrence, Nuclear Weapons, and Managing Strategic Threats 6. A Cyber-Nuclear Security Dilemma, Nuclear Stability, and Crisis Management Part 4: Challenges for Our Cyber-Nuclear Future7. Nuclear Weapons Modernization, Advanced Conventional Weapons, and the Future Global Nuclear Environment Conclusion:Managing Our Cyber-Nuclear Future Bibliography Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION BY RICHARD RHODES PREFACE BY ROBERT SERBER The Los Alamos Primer 1 Object 2 Energy of Fission Process 3 Fast Neutron Chain Reaction 4 Fission Cross-sections 5 Neutron Spectrum 6 Neutron Number 7 Neutron Capture 8 Why Ordinary U Is Safe 9 Material 49 10 Simplest Estimate of Minimum Size of Bomb 11 Effect of Tamper 12 Damage 13 Efficiency 14 Effect of Tamper on Efficiency 15 Detonation 16 Probability of Predetonation 17 Fizzles 18 Detonating Source 19 Neutron Background 20 Shooting 21 Autocatalytic Methods 22 Conclusion ENDNOTES APPENDIX I: THE FRISCH-PEIERLS MEMORANDUM APPENDIX II: BIOG Index

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Book SynopsisIn 2017, North Korea shocked the world: test-flying a missile capable of reaching the US, exploding the most powerful nuclear device tested anywhere in a quarter-century, and declaring its nuclear deterrent complete. Today, Kim Jong Un’s growing nuclear stockpile represents a grave threat to international security. But this programme means more to him than world glory. State propaganda calls it the ‘treasured sword’: Kim is determined to keep ruling, and he sees his nukes as the key to regime survival. Kim Jong Un and the Bomb explores the history of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, its present power, and the prospects of containing Kim’s arsenal. This book confronts us with a nuclear-armed North Korea that is not going anywhere, and reveals what this means for the US, South Korea and the world. Ankit Panda is an award-winning writer and international security expert. He is Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, and a senior editor at The Diplomat. He lives in New York.Trade Review‘[Panda’s] deeply informed book explains as much as is publicly known about how Pyongyang developed nuclear weapons.’ -- Foreign Affairs‘An extensive and exhaustive map of Pyongyang’s journey to a nuclear deterrent that will stand the test of time.’ -- NK News‘Panda, a noted international security analyst, discusses each step the North Korean regime took to build its stockpile, integrating his narrative with accounts of the diplomatic strategies successive American administrations adopted first to prevent the North from weaponizing the atom and then to slow progress once the Kims had succeeded.’ -- The New York Times'North Korea's quest for nuclear weapons didn't begin in 2017. "Kim Jong Un and the Bomb" meticulously lays out how we got here -- and what lies ahead. It should be required reading for understanding the motivations and machinations behind Kim's destabilising mission.' -- Jean Lee, former AP Pyongyang bureau chief, and director of the Center for Korean History and Public Policy, Wilson Center'One of the best volumes available to provide deep insights into the situation on the Korean Peninsula and the long cycle of danger--openings--progress--shattered hope. Worthy of study!' -- Retd U.S. Army Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of UN Command, U.S. Forces Korea and U.S.-South Korea Combined Forces Command, 2016-18'A timely, balanced and comprehensive overview of North Korea's path to becoming a nuclear power, and what this means for the world. Panda shows that this extraordinary story is immensely important, but--despite bizarre episodes and characters--not remotely funny.' -- Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau China Institute, King's College London

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Book SynopsisAt 18 years of age, Theodore Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, hired as a junior at Harvard and put to work at Los Alamos in 1944. Assigned the job of testing and refining the complex implosion system for the plutonium bomb, Hall was described as “amazingly brilliant” by his superiors on the project, many of whom were Nobel Prize winners. But what Hall’s colleagues didn’t know was that the teenaged Hall was also the youngest spy taken on by the Soviet Union in search of secrets to the atomic bomb. Spy With No Country tells the gripping story of a brilliant scientist whose information about the plutonium bomb, including detailed drawings and measurements, proved to be integral to the Soviet’s development of nuclear capabilities.In the dying days of World War II, defeat of the Third Reich became a matter of when, not if. Tensions between wartime allies America and the Soviet Union began to rise, and things only got hotter when the United States refused to share information on its nuclear program. This groundbreaking book paints a nuanced picture of a young man acting on what he thought was best for the world. Neither a Communist nor a Soviet sympathizer, Hall worked to ensure that America did not monopolize the science behind the atomic bomb, which he felt may have apocalyptic consequences. Instead, by providing the Soviets with the secrets of the bomb, and thereby initiating “mutual assured destruction,” Hall may have actually saved the world as we know it. But his contributions to the Soviets certainly did not go unnoticed. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover opened an investigation into Hall, which was escalated when it was discovered that Hall’s brother Edward was a rising star of the Air Force, leading the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Featuring in-depth research from recently declassified FBI documents, first-hand journals, and personal interviews, investigative journalist Dave Lindorff uncovers the story of the atomic spy who gave secrets away, and got away with it, too.

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Book SynopsisBased on original and previously unavailable documents, Yuri Kostenko’s account of the negotiations surrounding the Budapest Memorandum agreement between Ukraine, Russia, and the US reveals for the first time the internal debates of the Ukrainian government, as well as the pressure exerted upon it by its international partners.Trade ReviewA really, really interesting story, almost unknown in the West…Nuclear weapons were Ukraine’s security, and they gave it up because the US and Russia were working together…What has happened to Ukraine since it was disarmed has and will have a negative impact on the global story of denuclearization. Countries are going to think twice next time someone comes along proposing to give them a piece of paper in exchange for their nuclear weapons. -- Serhii Plokhy * Five Books *An interesting and timely document that will be of great interest not only to Ukraine scholars but also to the scholars of national security and global nuclear politics. -- Eglė Rindzevičiūtė * Slavic Review *An absorbing read, providing historical insights on the demise of the Soviet Union, the emergence of independent Ukraine, the management of its relations with Moscow and the West, and challenges and pitfalls of diplomacy from a position of weakness. It contains important lessons for the management of today’s proliferation challenges in North East Asia and the Middle East. -- John Tilemann * Australian Outlook *A story of David (new-born Ukraine) versus Goliath (Russia), with a fierce domestic debate in the political sphere in Ukraine—less so in the societal sphere—between actors with different beliefs and interests…Crucial in light of the current happenings, already at the beginning of the 1990s one could discern indications that it was extremely important to Russia that Ukraine would remain within its sphere of influence. -- Tom Sauer * Canadian Slavonic Papers *Revealing…Drawing on the parliamentary and executive government portfolios that Kostenko held during the 1990s, the book lays out a picture of the intense domestic and international political struggles that prompted Kiev to give up the bomb that some Ukrainians today wistfully believe could have deterred Russia from gobbling up Crimea while fomenting separatism in the country’s east. -- Bennett Ramberg * Political Science Quarterly *Yuri Kostenko has written a superb book explaining why Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in the mid-1990s, leaving itself without a deterrent against Russia. He shows in fascinating detail that pressure from Moscow and Washington left Ukraine with little choice but to surrender its nuclear arsenal. Kostenko directly ties that fateful decision to the war that broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, in which Ukraine was largely defenseless and the United States, which had promised to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, sat on the sidelines. The implicit message of Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament is clear: there is no substitute for a nuclear deterrent when you live in a dangerous neighborhood. -- John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, and author of Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International RealitiesYuri Kostenko’s rich, cogent, and well-sourced insider account of Ukraine giving up the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal in the 1990s shows how power asymmetries and state-building affect international political outcomes in nontrivial and counterintuitive ways—with the security dilemma engendering hasty unilateral disarmament; costly commitments demanded from weaker rather than stronger states; and democratic peace falling short of its promises even with the endorsement of the world’s most powerful democracies. A must-read for students of international politics, the book explains how authoritarian adversaries can leverage America’s security concerns of the day to subvert fledgling democracies and why support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and integration with the West is in America’s vital long-term national interest. -- Mikhail Alexseev, Professor in the Department of Political Science, San Diego State University, and author of Without Warning: Threat Assessment, Intelligence, and Global StruggleUkraine’s Nuclear Disarmament is the definitive account of the fateful decision to unilaterally dismantle the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal. Yuri Kostenko was the consummate insider, with privileged access to the actors and arguments that led to a decision whose legacy continues to haunt Ukraine’s future. Not only does he produce a wealth of new material, some previously classified; he disposes of the myth that the opponents of this decision wished to maintain Ukraine’s nuclear status. Until now, the straw man of ‘nuclear-armed Ukraine’ has impeded critical thought about whether more could have been done to ensure ‘effective disarmament.’ Kostenko’s detailed and engrossing account will enlighten and disquiet in equal measure. -- James Sherr, Senior Fellow, Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at the International Centre for Defence and Security, and Associate Fellow, Chatham House Russia and Eurasia ProgrammeEven readers who believe that Ukraine never had a realistic chance—technically or politically—of emerging as a full-fledged nuclear weapons state in the 1990s will find Yuri Kostenko’s book extremely illuminating. Having served as Ukraine’s minister of environmental protection and a member of the Ukrainian parliament during the protracted debates on the nuclear issue, Kostenko provides a richly detailed insider’s account that underscores the importance of political divisions within Ukraine in shaping the outcome. These divisions, he contends, gave greater leverage to external actors and prevented Ukraine from pursuing the kind of deal he favored: a deal that would have given Ukraine more robust security guarantees and greater financial compensation in exchange for relinquishing all the nuclear missiles left on its territory after the demise of the Soviet Union. -- Mark Kramer, Director of Cold War Studies, Harvard University

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Book SynopsisAt a moment when the nuclear nonproliferation regime is under duress, Rebecca Davis Gibbons provides a trenchant analysis of the international system that has, for more than fifty years, controlled the spread of these catastrophic weapons. The Hegemon''s Tool Kit details how that regime works and how, disastrously, it might falter. In the early nuclear age, experts anticipated that all technologically-capable states would build these powerful devices. That did not happen. Widespread development of nuclear arms did not occur, in large part, because a global nuclear nonproliferation regime was created. By the late-1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union had drafted the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and across decades the regime has expanded, with more agreements and more nations participating. As a result, in 2022, only nine states possess nuclear weapons. Why do most states in the international system adhere toTrade ReviewEdgar's research is in many ways original and innovative, and it thus opens a wide new field of research in Soviet studies that others might want to expand. * International Affairs *

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Book SynopsisOn 6 August and 8 August 1945, the world changed forever with the release of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. In January 1947, the United States informed the British Government that they would not provide technical data for the production of nuclear weapons. It was therefore decided that Britain would produce its own bombs. In July 1944, the first operational jet aircraft, the Meteor, entered service in the RAF and the Government decided to develop jet-powered aircraft capable of dropping nuclear weapons, resulting in the development of the 'V' bombers: Valiant, Vulcan and Victor. As a result of the deteriorating relationship with Russia, the United States, as part of NATO, worked with the UK and co-operated in nuclear operational planning with US bomber aircraft based in the UK. Later, as a result of the development of nuclear power, submarines were fitted with nuclear weapons which resulted in the deterrent role passing from the RAF to the Royal Navy. However, the Cold War provided a unique role and responsibility for the RAF.My Target was Leningrad - V Force: Preserving our Democracy is unique in that it is a human story, not just a list of technical facts and bomber data. With many previously unpublished photographs from the author's private collection, this is the chilling story of what really happened and how close the world came to World War III and a nuclear apocalypse. Unlike other military historians, author Philip Goodall not only flew the mighty V bombers in action, but was also tasked to drop the bomb on Leningrad.

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Book SynopsisA Times History Book of the Year 2022From the #1 bestselling historian Max Hastings the heart-stopping story of the missile crisis' Daily TelegraphThe 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most perilous event in history, when mankind faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and Soviet Union. During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation.Max Hastings's graphic new history tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots and British disarmers. Max Hastings deploys his accustomed blend of eye-witness interviews, archive documents and diaries, White House tape recordings, top-down analysis, first to paint word-portraits of the Cold War experiences of Fidel Castro's Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev's Russia and Kennedy's America; then to describe the nail-biting Thirteen Days in which Armageddon beckoned.Hastings began researching this book believing that he was exploring a past event from twentieTrade Review PRAISE FOR ABYSS: ‘Grabs from the get-go… as if this were the very best fiction’ Daily Mail ‘A brilliant, beautifully constructed and thrilling reassessment of the most perilous moment in history’ Daily Telegraph ‘Frightening but hopelessly addictive’ The Times ‘Magisterial… chilling’Daily Express ‘Brilliantly told… compelling… Hastings has cleverly woven the story together from all sides describing them in dramatic, almost hour by hour detail… this is a scary book. Hastings sees little evidence that today’s leaders understand each other any better than they did in 1962’ Sunday Times ‘Deeply researched, incisively intelligent and compulsively readable. Abyss is as tight and smart account as any account and will earn pride of place even on a shelf already packed with books about the crisis’ TLS ‘A gripping retelling of those weeks of brinkmanship, reckless gambles, gung-ho generals and a thuggish USSR leader bullying a ‘weak president’’ Sun ‘Superb… reads like a thriller as the gripping drama of the Cold War power politics plays out behind closed doors in Washington, Moscow and Havana’ Daily Mail ‘Hastings lays bare, with chilling clarity, the ease with which political theatre and bluster could well have escalated into a scenario of mutually assured destruction’ Observer

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Book SynopsisA Times History Book of the Year 2022From the #1 bestselling historian Max Hastings the heart-stopping story of the missile crisis' Daily TelegraphThe 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was the most perilous event in history, when mankind faced a looming nuclear collision between the United States and Soviet Union. During those weeks, the world gazed into the abyss of potential annihilation.Max Hastings's graphic new history tells the story from the viewpoints of national leaders, Russian officers, Cuban peasants, American pilots and British disarmers. Max Hastings deploys his accustomed blend of eye-witness interviews, archive documents and diaries, White House tape recordings, top-down analysis, first to paint word-portraits of the Cold War experiences of Fidel Castro's Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev's Russia and Kennedy's America; then to describe the nail-biting Thirteen Days in which Armageddon beckoned.Hastings began researching this book believing that he was exploring a past event from twentieth century history. He is as shocked as are millions of us around the world, to discover that the rape of Ukraine gives this narrative a hitherto unimaginable twenty-first century immediacy. We may be witnessing the onset of a new Cold War between nuclear-armed superpowers.To contend with today's threat, which Hastings fears will prove enduring, it is critical to understand how, sixty years ago, the world survived its last glimpse into the abyss. Only by fearing the worst, he argues, can our leaders hope to secure the survival of the planet.Trade Review PRAISE FOR ABYSS: ‘Grabs from the get-go… as if this were the very best fiction’ Daily Mail ‘A brilliant, beautifully constructed and thrilling re-assessment of the most perilous moment in history’ Daily Telegraph ‘Frightening but hopelessly addictive’ The Times ‘Magisterial… chilling’Daily Express ‘Brilliantly told… compelling… Hastings has cleverly woven the story together from all sides describing them in dramatic, almost hour by hour detail… this is a scary book. Hastings sees little evidence that today’s leaders understand each other any better than they did in 1962’ Sunday Times ‘Deeply researched, incisively intelligent and compulsively readable. Abyss is as tight and smart account as any account and will earn pride of place even on a shelf already packed with books about the crisis’ TLS ‘A gripping retelling of those weeks of brinkmanship, reckless gambles, gung-ho generals and a thuggish USSR leader bullying a ‘weak president’’ Sun ‘Superb… reads like a thriller as the gripping drama of the Cold War power politics plays out behind closed doors in Washington, Moscow and Havana’ Daily Mail ‘Hastings lays bare, with chilling clarity, the ease with which political theatre and bluster could well have escalated into a scenario of mutually assured destruction’ Observer

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Book SynopsisOffers a look inside a country torn apart - from corrupt officials to warlords and child brides - while revisiting the author's own family's deep roots to the land.Trade Review"Nawa deftly sketches the geopolitical nightmare that is today's Afghanistan, but the book's real strength is her detailed, sensitive reporting of individual people's stories." -- Boston Globe "Powerful... Nawa draws rich, complex portraits of subjects on both sides of the law ... Nawa's work is remarkable for its depth, honesty, and commitment to recording women's stories, even when it means putting her own safety at risk. She writes with passion about the history of her volatile homeland and with cautious optimism about its future." -- Publishers Weekly "Nawa ably captures the tragic complexity of Afghan society and the sheer difficulty of life there... Her assured narrative clearly stems from in-depth reporting in a risk-laden environment." -- Kirkus Reviews "Insightful and informative... Fariba Nawa weaves her personal story of reconnecting with her homeland after 9/11 with a very engaging narrative that chronicles Afghanistan's dangerous descent into opium trafficking ... [and] how the drug trade has damaged the lives of ordinary Afghan people." -- Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns "Opium Nation brings much needed depth and complexity to any conversation involving Afghanistan and its future. Fariba Nawa writes with the detailed eye of a journalist, the warmth of a proud Afghan and the nuanced perspective of someone effortlessly straddling the East and the West." -- Firoozeh Dumas, author of Laughing Without an Accent and Funny in Farsi "Journalists, policy makers, and scholars have written on the Afghan drug trade, but no one has shown its human drama and toll like Fariba Nawa. [She] offers a unique view of the human side of this conflict in which we are so deeply engaged." -- Barnett R. Rubin, author of The Fragmentation of Afghanistan

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Book SynopsisBestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history—the Cuban Missile Crisis—providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.In The Abyss, Max Hastings turns his focus to one of the most terrifying events of the mid-twentieth century—the thirteen days in October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Hastings looks at the conflict with fresh eyes, focusing on the people at the heart of the crisis—America President John F. Kennedy, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and a host of their advisors.Combining in-depth research with Hasting’s well-honed insights, The Abyss is a human history that unfolds on a wide, colorful canvas. As the action moves back and forth from Moscow to Washington, DC, to Havana, Hastings seeks to explain, as much as to describe, the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans, and Americans, and to recreate the tension and heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance. Reflecting on the outcome of these events, he reveals how the aftermath of this momentous crisis continues to reverberate today.Powerful, and riveting, filled with compelling detail and told with narrative flair, The Abyss is history at its finest.

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Book SynopsisCommand and Control interweaves the minute-by-minute story of an accident at a missile silo in rural Arkansas, where a single crew struggled to prevent the explosion of the most powerful nuclear warhead ever built by the United States, with a historical narrative that spans more than fifty years. It depicts the urgent effort to ensure that nuclear weapons can''t be stolen, sabotaged, used without permission, or detonated inadvertently. Schlosser also looks at the Cold War from a new perspective, offering history from the ground up, telling the stories of bomber pilots, missile commanders, maintenance crews, and other ordinary servicemen who risked their lives to avert a nuclear holocaust. Drawing on recently declassified documents and interviews with men who designed and routinely handled nuclear weapons, Command and Control takes readers into a terrifying but fascinating world that, until now, has been largely hidden from view.Trade ReviewSo damnably readable. It drives the vision of a world trembling on the edge of a fatal precipice deep into your mind ... a piece of work of the deepest import, with the multilayered density of an ambitiously conceived novel -- John Lloyd * Financial Times *Do you really want to read about the thermonuclear warheads that are still aimed at the city where you live? Do you really need to know about the appalling security issues that have dogged nuclear weapons in the 70 years since their invention? Yes, you do. In Schlosser's hands it is a reading treat ... he's a natural genius -- Jonathan Franzen * Guardian, Books of the Year *Part techno-thriller, part careful historical investigation ... beautifully written and impressively researched -- Gerard DeGroot * Daily Telegraph *Brilliant, gripping, chilling -- Steven Shapin * London Review of Books *The author of Fast Food Nation does for the American nuclear industry what he did for industrial food production * Economist, Books of the Year *Eric Schlosser detonates a truth bomb in Command and Control * Vanity Fair *Deeply reported, deeply frightening . . . a techno-thriller of the first order * Los Angeles Times *An excellent journalistic investigation of the efforts made since the first atomic bomb was exploded, outside Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, to put some kind of harness on nuclear weaponry. By a miracle of information management, Schlosser has synthesized a huge archive of material, including government reports, scientific papers, and a substantial historical and polemical literature on nukes, and transformed it into a crisp narrative covering more than fifty years of scientific and political change. And he has interwoven that narrative with a hair-raising, minute-by-minute account of an accident at a Titan II missile silo in Arkansas, in 1980, which he renders in the manner of a techno-thriller . . . Command and Control is how nonfiction should be written -- Louis Menand * The New Yorker *A devastatingly lucid and detailed new history of nuclear weapons in the U.S. . . . fascinating -- Lev Grossman * Time *Command and Control ranks among the most nightmarish books written in recent years; and in that crowded company it bids fair to stand at the summit. It is the more horrific for being so incontrovertibly right and so damnably readable. Page after relentless page, it drives the vision of a world trembling on the edge of a fatal precipice deep into your reluctant mind . . . a work with the multilayered density of an ambitiously conceived novel . . . Schlosser has done what journalism does at its best when at full stretch: he has spent time - years - researching, interviewing, understanding and reflecting to give us a piece of work of the deepest import * Financial Times *Perilous and gripping . . . Schlosser skillfully weaves together an engrossing account of both the science and the politics of nuclear weapons safety . . . The story of the missile silo accident unfolds with the pacing, thrill and techno details of an episode of 24 * San Francisco Chronicle *Disquieting but riveting . . . fascinating . . . Schlosser's readers (and he deserves a great many) will be struck by how frequently the people he cites attribute the absence of accidental explosions and nuclear war to divine intervention or sheer luck rather than to human wisdom and skill. Whatever was responsible, we will clearly need many more of it in the years to come * New York Times Book Review *Easily the most unsettling work of nonfiction I've ever read, Schlosser's six-year investigation of America's 'broken arrows' (nuclear weapons mishaps) is by and large historical-this stuff is top secret, after all-but the book is beyond relevant. It's critical reading in a nation with thousands of nukes still on hair-trigger alert . . . Command and Control reads like a character-driven thriller as Schlosser draws on his deep reporting, extensive interviews, and documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act to demonstrate how human error, computer glitches, dilution of authority, poor communications, occasional incompetence, and the routine hoarding of crucial information have nearly brought about our worst nightmare on numerous occasions * Mother Jones *A powerful mix of history, politics, and technology, told with impressive authority * Independent *Eric Schlosser brings the investigative rigour of his big hit Fast Food Nation to this overview of our global nuclear arsenal * Herald *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewNuclear Decisions remains a valuable addition to the nuclear security literature and required reading for those that study the nature or domestic politics of nuclear weapons programs. * Christopher J. Watterson, Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament *Koch's Nuclear Decisions is an important addition to the scholarship on nuclear proliferation. * Rachel Whitlark, H-Diplo *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction to Nuclear Decisions Chapter 2: Proliferation Curves Chapter 3: A Theory of Nuclear Decision-Making Chapter 4: Changing Proliferation Environments across the Nuclear Age . Chapter 5: The Permissive Period: The Soviet Union, France, and Israel Chapter 6: The Transition Period: Sweden, South Korea, and India Chapter 7: The Nonproliferation Regime Period: Pakistan, South Africa, and Brazil Chapter 8: Changing the Course of Nuclear Weapons Programs References Appendix

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Book Synopsis''War is the most important thing in the world'', writes Martin van Creveld, one of the world''s best-known experts on military history and strategy.The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defence. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, it must be prepared for every day. When it is too late-when the bodies lie stiff and people weep over them-those in charge have failed in their duty. Nevertheless, in spite of the centrality of war to human history and culture, there has for long been no modern attempt to provide a replacement for the classics on war and strategy, Sun Tzu''s The Art of War, dating from the 5th or 6th century BC, and Carl von Clausewitz''s On War, written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. What is needed is a modern, comprehensive, easy to read and understand theory of war for the 21st century that could serve as a replacement for these classic texts. The purpTrade ReviewProbably the best book on war that I have ever read -- short and succinct for the layman. * Andrew Sheng, The Star, Malaysia *A good update on the general theories of war and makes for an informative and interesting explanation. * Chris May, Battlefield *[A] gem of a book... compulsory reading for all political leaders. * Soldier *Authoritative and thought-provoking. * Milos Stankovic, Spectator *Well-written, based on much knowledge, interesting, and thoughtful. * Jeremy Black, Military History Monthly *For the non-military reader More on War's most engaging sections are likely to be the concluding reflections on the way war is changing. The rise of drones, the shrinking human role in combat, the emergence of cyber warfare all of these will have an impact, and not just upon the way wars are fought but upon the societies that fight them. * Financial Times *Many people of today in the Western world seem to have forgotten about war, which has followed mankind throughout history. This book is an excellent reminder, recommended especially to the women and men who will lead us into the future. * Anders Brännström, Major General, Swedish Army *Table of ContentsIntroduction. The Crisis of Military Theory 1: Why War? 2: Economics and War 3: The Challenge of War 4: Building the Forces 5: The Conduct of War 6: On Strategy 7: War at Sea 8: Air- Space- and Cyber War 9: Nuclear War 10: War and Law 11: Asymmetric War 12: Perspectives: Change, Continuity and the Future Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisThe book reflects the author''s experience across more than forty years in assessing and forming policy about nuclear weapons, mostly at senior levels close to the centre both of British governmental decision-making and of NATO''s development of plans and deployments, with much interaction also with comparable levels of United States activity in the Pentagon and the State department. Part I of the book seeks to distill, from this exceptional background of practical experience, basic conceptual ways of understanding the revolution brought about by nuclear weapons. It also surveys NATO''s progressive development of thinking about nuclear deterrence, and then discusses the deep moral dilemmas posed - for all possible standpoints - by the existence of such weapons. Part II considers the risks and costs of nuclear-weapon possession, including proliferation dangers, and looks at both successful and unsuccessful ideas about how to manage them. Part III illustrates specific issues by reviewingTrade ReviewQuinlans reflections on nuclear weapons are thought-provoking and informative...Eloquent and thought-provoking, this is a book that should be enjoyed by a wide audience...This is an excellent book that students of history and international security would do well to consider. * David James Gill, International Affairs *The best possible introduction to modern nuclear-policy thinking. * Survival *Table of ContentsForeword ; Preface ; Introduction ; PART I - THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS ; 1. The Nuclear Revolution ; 2. The Tools of Thinking ; 3. Deterrence ; 4. Nuclear Deterrence in NATO ; 5. The Ethics of Nuclear Weapons ; PART II - MANAGING NUCLEAR WEAPONS ; 6. Risks ; 7. Proliferation ; 8. Arms Racing, Costs, and Arms Control ; 9. Easements and Escape Routes ; NATIONAL NUCLEAR-WEAPON POSTURES AND POLICIES: BRITAIN, INDIA, PAKISTAN ; 10. United Kingdom Doctrine and Policy ; 11. Nuclear Weapons in South Asia ; PART IV - THE PATH AHEAD ; 12. The Abolition of Nuclear Armouries? ; 13. The Practical Agenda ; Appendix 1: Nuclear weapons and preventing war ; Appendix 2: The strategic use of nuclear weapons ; Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1974 India joined the elite roster of nuclear world powers when it exploded its first nuclear bomb. Over the course of the twentieth century, India metamorphosed from a marginal place to a serious hub of technological and scientific innovation. This title tells the tale of this transformation.Trade Review"It is not easy to write a gripping narrative of the technical details, institutional arrangements, and interpersonal relationships within scientific institutions and between political powers, but Robert Anderson has pulled it off. Nucleus and Nation is a complex, wide-ranging, and engaging work." - Benjamin Zachariah, University of Sheffield"

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Book SynopsisThus far, we have succeeded in preventing a nuclear war, and this is partly due to the various treaties signed in the 1960s forswearing the use of nuclear technology for military purposes. The author seeks to understand why some nations agreed to these limitations of their sovereign will - and why others decidedly did not.Trade Review"This brilliant book should be of wide interest to students of government, politics, sociology, and law, as well as to high-level policy makers and the general public concerned with nuclear nonproliferation and problems of global governance. Mallard draws deftly on a wealth of primary and secondary sources to provide us with a lucid and captivating account of the centrality of 'opacity' as a discursive strategy in transnational affairs." (Daniel Halberstam, University of Michigan)"

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Within the vast scholarship on the atomic bombs the book stands out for its highly original depiction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as ‘ground zero’ for the articulation of the concept of trauma, which is applied so widely today. Historians of Japan, medicine and science and technology studies are likely to find it an enlightening and even moving read.” * British Journal for the History of Science *“This book presents an insightful and persuasive analysis of Japanese psychiatry and the troubled experiences of atom bomb survivors. . . . Zwigenberg provides important evidence to understand why so many people, who had endured unimaginable suffering, were neglected in the post-war period.” * The Psychologist *“Nuclear Minds is a penetrating investigation into how the postwar Japanese psychological and psychiatric establishment encountered the psychic effects of nuclear trauma, exposing a long journey toward an understanding of how political trauma and war deeply effect individuals within their collective society—here, Zwigenberg offers a necessary reflection and examination extremely resonant with current events today.” * History: Reviews of New Books *“After Hiroshima in 1945, the psychological effect of the bomb was, astonishingly, explained away as if caused by anything but the bomb. Science’s obsession with objectivity and universality, compounded by the Cold War realignment of geopolitical powers, made individual suffering of hibakusha utterly invisible. In a clear and compelling analysis, and with appealingly open prose, Zwigenberg strikingly juxtaposes and makes tangible a global web of psychological knowledge, science politics, and survivor activism before the advent of post-traumatic stress disorder.” -- Naoko Wake, Michigan State University“A profound and illuminating journey into the psychological subjectivism experienced by the hibakusha under the Cold War psychiatric gaze. Zwigenberg shows how analyses of surviving nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were embedded into existing psychological frameworks of militarized emotional harm and yet disrupted them. We see the hibakusha abandoned as suffering individuals even as their wounds were being collectively codified to prepare the world for a dystopic future.” -- Robert A. Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute and Hiroshima City UniversityTable of ContentsNote on Language Introduction Part 1. Bombing Minds Chapter 1. American Psychological Sciences and the Road to Hiroshima and Nagasaki Chapter 2. Bombing “the Japanese Mind”: Alexander Leighton’s Hiroshima Chapter 3. Healing a Sick World: The Nuclear Age on the Analyst’s Couch Chapter 4. Nuclear Trauma and Panic in the United States Part 2. Researching Minds, Healing Minds Chapter 5. Y. Scott Matsumoto, the ABCC, and A-Bomb Social Work Chapter 6. Konuma Masuho and the Psychiatry of the Bomb Chapter 7. Kubo Yoshitoshi and the Psychology of Peace Chapter 8. Social Workers, Nuclear Sociology, and the Road to PTSD Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Within the vast scholarship on the atomic bombs the book stands out for its highly original depiction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as ‘ground zero’ for the articulation of the concept of trauma, which is applied so widely today. Historians of Japan, medicine and science and technology studies are likely to find it an enlightening and even moving read.” * British Journal for the History of Science *“This book presents an insightful and persuasive analysis of Japanese psychiatry and the troubled experiences of atom bomb survivors. . . . Zwigenberg provides important evidence to understand why so many people, who had endured unimaginable suffering, were neglected in the post-war period.” * The Psychologist *“Nuclear Minds is a penetrating investigation into how the postwar Japanese psychological and psychiatric establishment encountered the psychic effects of nuclear trauma, exposing a long journey toward an understanding of how political trauma and war deeply effect individuals within their collective society—here, Zwigenberg offers a necessary reflection and examination extremely resonant with current events today.” * History: Reviews of New Books *“After Hiroshima in 1945, the psychological effect of the bomb was, astonishingly, explained away as if caused by anything but the bomb. Science’s obsession with objectivity and universality, compounded by the Cold War realignment of geopolitical powers, made individual suffering of hibakusha utterly invisible. In a clear and compelling analysis, and with appealingly open prose, Zwigenberg strikingly juxtaposes and makes tangible a global web of psychological knowledge, science politics, and survivor activism before the advent of post-traumatic stress disorder.” -- Naoko Wake, Michigan State University“A profound and illuminating journey into the psychological subjectivism experienced by the hibakusha under the Cold War psychiatric gaze. Zwigenberg shows how analyses of surviving nuclear attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were embedded into existing psychological frameworks of militarized emotional harm and yet disrupted them. We see the hibakusha abandoned as suffering individuals even as their wounds were being collectively codified to prepare the world for a dystopic future.” -- Robert A. Jacobs, Hiroshima Peace Institute and Hiroshima City UniversityTable of ContentsNote on Language Introduction Part 1. Bombing Minds Chapter 1. American Psychological Sciences and the Road to Hiroshima and Nagasaki Chapter 2. Bombing “the Japanese Mind”: Alexander Leighton’s Hiroshima Chapter 3. Healing a Sick World: The Nuclear Age on the Analyst’s Couch Chapter 4. Nuclear Trauma and Panic in the United States Part 2. Researching Minds, Healing Minds Chapter 5. Y. Scott Matsumoto, the ABCC, and A-Bomb Social Work Chapter 6. Konuma Masuho and the Psychiatry of the Bomb Chapter 7. Kubo Yoshitoshi and the Psychology of Peace Chapter 8. Social Workers, Nuclear Sociology, and the Road to PTSD Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisLooks at the history of nuclear proliferation and provides a survey of the range of critical perspectives. This work begins with the first atomic discoveries of the 1930s and covers the history of their growth. It also explains why many nations choose not to pursue nuclear weapons and outlines of a solution to the world's proliferation problem.Trade ReviewInvaluable... [Bomb Scare] ought to be read by everyone as a matter of life and death. -- Jason Epstein New York Review of Books A welcome antidote to the strange confluence of nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) opponents. -- Christopher F. Chyba Science

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Book SynopsisSince their inception, nuclear weapons have multiplied at an alarming rate, leaving everyone from policymakers to concerned citizens wondering what it will take to slow, stop, or even reverse their spread. This book looks at the history of nuclear proliferation. It covers the development of nuclear stockpiles.Trade ReviewInvaluable... [Bomb Scare] ought to be read by everyone as a matter of life and death. -- Jason Epstein New York Review of Books A welcome antidote to the strange confluence of nuclear nonproliferation treaty (NPT) opponents. -- Christopher F. Chyba Science

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Book SynopsisThe thinking and leadership we need to avoid an irreversible tragedy.Trade ReviewCirincione lucidly provides a greater understanding of the threats still posed by the 17,000 nuclear weapons in the world, the risk of their use and analyzes the efforts to reduce and eliminate these threats. He also provides an original contribution in its analysis of the debate surrounding the nuclear policy of the Obama administration. -- Lawrence Korb, Center for American Progress Everyone in this world needs to be aware of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons, and also to realize that progress is possible. The record of achievement is there and the path to a better future can be identified. Joe Cirincione has been part of this unfolding story, and this book will help advance the effort on which he and so many of us have worked so hard. -- George P. Shultz, 60th Secretary of State Joe Cirincione is a clear-eyed, straight-talking, highly influential sage on the spread of nuclear weaponry and the imperative for the U.S. to lead the global effort in blunting this existential danger to the planet. In his latest book, he assesses the chances for progress in arms control between Presidents Obama and Putin, analyzes the latest ominous developments in Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea, lays out practical steps for American policy, and recommends ways for citizens to engage in the cause of nonproliferation. -- Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution In Nuclear Nightmares, Joe Cirincione presents a thorough, honest, and balanced view of the challenges to our security that nuclear weapons and fissile materials present to us today and the dangers that will emerge in the future. He implores us all to become knowledgeable, engage with our national leaders, and participate in the decisions that will so significantly affect our future. If you read only one book on this issue, this is the one. -- William J. Perry, 19th Secretary of Defense Joe Cirincione is our nation's best communicator and clarion advocate on reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. Nuclear Nightmares should be required reading for every Beltway journalist, every student of policy, and everyone who can't quite get their head around the thousands of nuclear bombs we're maintaining right now, ready to launch, even though no one can quite explain why on earth we would ever launch them. At the risk of undermining the title itself, Nuclear Nightmares will not actually give you nightmares. It will make you see that our giant, supposedly intractable nuclear problem is solvable, now, in this generation. A fascinating and vital book -- Rachel Maddow, Host of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show Cirincione's gripping, harrowing account of the arms race debate is essential reading for those concerned with a fickle world prone to threats and terrorism. Publishers Weekly ...the author is a clear-eyed, straight-talking, highly influential sage on the spread of nuclear weaponry... Political Studies Review This excellent book addresses the danger of nuclear catastrophe created by the existence of 17,000 nuclear weapons worldwide and the absence of a sustained effort to eliminate them... Highly recommended. ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction Part I. Policy 1. Promise 2. Legacy 3. Pivot Part II. Nightmares 4. Arsenals and Accidents 5. Calculating Armageddon 6. Exploding Budgets 7. The 95 Percent 8. The Most Dangerous Country on Earth Part III. Solutions 9. Posture and Proliferation 10. The End of Proliferation 11. Foundations Appendix A. Remarks by President Barack Obama Appendix B. Statement by President Barack Obama on the Release of Nuclear Posture Review Appendix C. Remarks by President Barack Obama at the United Nations Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament Appendix D. Excerpts from President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address Appendix E. Remarks by President Barack Obama at New START Treaty Signing Ceremony Appendix F. Ploughshares Fund Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe seismologist Lynn R. Sykes, a central figure in the development of the science and technology of nuclear test monitoring, has dedicated his career to halting nuclear testing. Silencing the Bomb tells the inside story behind scientists’ quest for disarmament in a tale of intrigue, international politics, and science used for the global good.Trade ReviewLynn R. Sykes has a long record of using seismology to study the important question of how to differentiate nuclear explosions from earthquakes. That experience makes him uniquely qualified to present this cautionary tale about the sclerotic process by which well-founded scientific insight filters its way into the politically loaded formulation of national policy-particularly defense policy. -- Daniel Davis, Stony Brook UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. A Hurried Trip to Moscow in 1974 to Negotiate the Threshold Nuclear Test Ban Treaty2. Development and Testing of Nuclear Weapons3. From the Early Negotiations to Halt Nuclear Testing to the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 19634. Attempts to Hide Nuclear Tests: The Big-Hole Evasion Scheme5. U.S. Overestimation of Sizes of Soviet Underground Explosions: 1961–19746. New Methods to Identify Underground Tests: 1963–19737. Congressional Hearings on a Comprehensive Test Ban8. Peaceful Nuclear Explosions9. Heated Controversies Over Yields of Soviet Tests and an Unsuccessful Attempt at a CTBT10. Continued Debate About Yields, Accusations of Soviet Cheating on the Threshold Treaty, and Its Entry Into Force11. Renewed Interest in a CTBT, the OTA Report, and the Group of Scientific Experts: 1979–199612. Dealing with “Problem” or “Anomalous” Events in the USSR and Russian Republic: 1972–200913. Negotiating the Comprehensive Test Ban: Global Monitoring, 1993–201614. Monitoring Nuclear Tests Sites and Countries of Special Concern to the United States15. Senate Rejection of the CTBT in 199916. The CTBT Task Force and the 2002 and 2012 Reports of the National Academies17. Strategic Nuclear Weapons: Soviet and U.S. Parity18. Nuclear War, False Alarms, Accidents, Arms Control, and Ways ForwardGlossary and AbbreviationsReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisNuclear North Korea was first published in 2003 amid the outbreak of a lasting crisis over the North Korean nuclear program. With a new chapter on the way forward for the international community in light of continued nuclear tensions, this book is of lasting relevance to understanding the state of affairs on the Korean peninsula.Trade Review[Cha and Kang’s] contribution is important for its frank discussion of the possibility of a nuclear attack and their presentation of potential courses of action. -- Concepción De León * The New York Times *[A] crisp, smart book. -- Michael O’Hanlon * Chronicle of Higher Education *A penetrating analysis of what is probably the world’s most dangerous trouble spot. -- Gordon G. Chang * Asian Review of Books *A delight to read. -- Rüdiger Frank * Pacific Affairs *This volume is an indispensable tool not only for all those working in the field of Korean Studies but also for all those dealing with International Relations theory. * International Spectator *Table of ContentsForeword, by Stephan HaggardPreface to the 2018 EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Debate Over North Korea1. Weak but Still Threatening2. Threatening, but Deterrence Works3. Response: Why We Must Pursue "Hawk Engagement"4. Response: Why Are We Afraid of Engagement?5. Hyperbole Dominates: The 2003 Nuclear Crisis6. Beyond Hyperbole, Toward a Strategy7. Is North Korea Not a Problem to Be Solved?NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisNuclear North Korea was first published in 2003 amid the outbreak of a lasting crisis over the North Korean nuclear program. With a new chapter on the way forward for the international community in light of continued nuclear tensions, this book is of lasting relevance to understanding the state of affairs on the Korean peninsula.Trade Review[Cha and Kang’s] contribution is important for its frank discussion of the possibility of a nuclear attack and their presentation of potential courses of action. -- Concepción De León * The New York Times *[A] crisp, smart book. -- Michael O’Hanlon * Chronicle of Higher Education *A penetrating analysis of what is probably the world’s most dangerous trouble spot. -- Gordon G. Chang * Asian Review of Books *A delight to read. -- Rüdiger Frank * Pacific Affairs *This volume is an indispensable tool not only for all those working in the field of Korean Studies but also for all those dealing with International Relations theory. * International Spectator *Table of ContentsForeword, by Stephan HaggardPreface to the 2018 EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Debate Over North Korea1. Weak but Still Threatening2. Threatening, but Deterrence Works3. Response: Why We Must Pursue "Hawk Engagement"4. Response: Why Are We Afraid of Engagement?5. Hyperbole Dominates: The 2003 Nuclear Crisis6. Beyond Hyperbole, Toward a Strategy7. Is North Korea Not a Problem to Be Solved?NotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2013 Washington State Book Award and finalist for the 2013 William Carlos Williams Award, Poetry Society of America, this title features poems that are nuclear-age songs of innocence and experience set in the "empty" desert West.Trade Review". . .quiet but damning poems on the history of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation . . ." -- John Bradley * Rain Taxi *"These poems are about delivered truth and the language of deceit. . . . Flenniken’s special combination of scientific and poetic skill gives us a powerful and readable illustration of an ongoing disaster and official attempts to pretend nothing untoward is going on." -- Mary Cresswell * Plumwood Mountain *"When it aims to, poetry can treat history in ways history books or photographs cannot: It drops us in our human skin into another time and place like no other medium. . . . Plume is difficult to put down and difficult to forget." -- Mike Dillon * City Living *"Flenniken’s award-winning collection of poems about Hanford. . . is a good way to enter the local landscape and mindset." * Seattle Times *"Remarkable in its scope and stunning in its use of many poetic forms. . . This bold engagement with a variety of styles allows the poems to ricochet and resonate on the page as the poet’s understanding of her past life deepens, drawing the reader into an ever more complex web of personal memory and national history." -- Linda Andrews * Poetry Northwest *"Plume immerses you in an isolated society that abides by its own rules and sense of what's important." -- Mary Ann Gwinn * Seattle Times *"Plume is an excellent example of how documentary poetry can blend the personal impulse toward nostalgia with the journalistic imperative for objectivity, and the result is a stunning multifaceted take on this public tragedy." -- Susan B. A. Somes-Willett * Orion *"Not only an education about Washington State and its role in the Nuclear Age but of an awakening in the American public as well as the poet herself to the peculiar dangers of invisible poisons and of trusting too much the authorities of science and government." -- Jeannine Hall Gailey * The Rumpus *"Washington state's new Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken gives an elegantly rendered example of another of [John] Morgan's dicta that 'poetry gives form to our feelings and helps us come to terms with them.'." -- Barbara Lloyd McMichael * The Bellingham Herald *"Many of the poems wrestle with the bomb factory's legacy of environmental contamination, illness and even death from exposure to radiation. But she also wrote them to honor the people she grew up with." -- Mary Ann Gwinn * The Seattle Times *Table of Contents Campaign Q&A, Somewhere in Oregon, May 18, 2008 My Earliest Memory Preserved on Film Rattlesnake Mountain Map of Childhood A Great Physicist Recalls the Manhattan Project Bedroom Community Document Control Mosquito Truck Herb Parker Feels Like Dancing Richland Dock, 2006 Days of Clotheslines Whole-Body Counter, Marcus Whitman Elementary Plume To Carolyn’s Father Afternoon’s Wide Horizon Redaction I Green Run Bird’s Eye View Richland Dock, 1956 On Cottonwood Drive Self-Portrait with Father as Tour Guide Interlude for Dancers Redaction II Augean Suite Siren Recognition Hand and Foot Count Atomic Man Radiation! The Value of Good Design Again I’m Asked if I Glow in the Dark The Cold War Going Down Reading Wells Redaction III Deposition Song of the Secretary, Hot Lab Flow Chart Coyote Museum of Doubt Dinner with Carolyn Portrait of My Father Museum of a Lost America If You Can Read This Notes Acknowledgments About the Poet A Note on the Type

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Book SynopsisFrom one of our leading social thinkers, a compelling case for the elimination of nuclear weapons.Trade Review"Eloquent." -- Richard Rhodes - The New York Times"The premise of this book is as relevant as it is horrifying, that the power to inflict great harm doesn’t belong to those that it supposedly protects. I congratulate Elaine Scarry on her intellectual courage and moral clarity and in proposing the only possible way out." -- Marcelo Gleiser, author of A Tear at the Edge of Creation"A really remarkable work, ranging across ethics, law and politics to pose genuinely radical challenges to the confused and potentially lethal systems that pass for democracy in our world. A painfully timely intervention." -- Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge and former Archbishop of Canterbury"Elaine Scarry offers a coruscating critique of current policies, arguing that they are antithetic to the spirit of the U.S. constitution, and indeed to basic democratic principles. This eloquent and scholarly book offers a compelling case for swifter progress toward their elimination." -- Martin Rees, astronomer royal of England"Even someone unpersuaded by Elaine Scarry’s constitutional analysis cannot avoid being gripped by her stark depiction of how utterly incompatible our eighteenth-century constitutional structure and the social contract it embodies are with our twenty-first-century weapons of mass destruction, weapons that can annihilate tens of millions of human souls in the blink of an eye and at the whim of a single individual, consulting with no one. A sober and haunting meditation on this tension between our institutions and our capacities, Scarry’s book requires any thoughtful reader to revisit the basic postulates and the deepest human purposes of our system of government." -- Laurence H. Tribe, professor of constitutional law, Harvard Law School"A few years ago General Lee Butler, former head of the U.S. Strategic Command, condemned the ‘faith in nuclear weapons’ to which his life had been wrongly dedicated and the ‘breathtaking audacity’ in maintaining them when ‘we should stand trembling in the face of our folly and united in our commitment to abolish its most deadly manifestations.’ In this fascinating study, Elaine Scarry adds rich historical, philosophical, literary, and legal depth to Butler’s grim warnings, with novel and provocative insights. That we have escaped disaster so far is a near miracle. Scarry’s remarkable contribution should inspire us to abolish this colossal folly." -- Noam Chomsky"[U]rgent and lucid … [a] prolonged rallying cry of a book." -- Kenneth Baker - San Francisco Chronicle"Elaine Scarry is right: Americans live in a thermonuclear monarchy." -- Kennette Benedict - Bulletin of Atomic Scientists"Scarry’s assault on the reigning complacency about nuclear weapons rests on her belief in the capacity of an interpretation to reconfigure the world." -- Nathan Schneider - Chronicle of Higher Education"Thermonuclear Monarchy is a work of deadly serious political science by an analyst dwelling on the constitutional implications of giving a democratically elected president sovereign-like autocracy." -- Nick Smith - Engineering & Technology (U.K.)"Scarry’s book requires any thoughtful reader to revisit the basic postulates and the deepest human purposes of our system of government." -- Laurence H. Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School

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Book SynopsisSpying on the Bomb is an "engrossing" (Wall Street Journal) global history of the American-led effort to spy on every nation with nuclear ambitions.Trade Review"Richelson’s exhaustive research has uncovered the fascinating stories of how American intelligence spied on our enemies and our allies over the past six decades in an effort to discover their nuclear secrets. The mixed record of success and failure provides important lessons for today as we try to learn what the North Koreans are up to." -- Robert S. Norris, author of Racing for the Bomb"Richelson writes with admirable clarity." -- New York Times Book Review"Full of tense and suspenseful turns." -- Kirkus Reviews"Spying on the Bomb…is especially damning in demonstrating how this costly array of gadgetry in the air, on land and beneath the sea still leaves us guessing about different nations’ nuclear capabilities." -- Los Angeles Times"Searching and informed analysis of our nation’s nuclear espionage." -- Booklist"A magisterial history of the U.S. nuclear intelligence effort." -- Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

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