Nuclear weapons Books

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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Book SynopsisThis Second Edition continues the fine tradition of its predecessor by exploring the various automatic control systems in aircraft and on board missiles. Considerably expanded and updated, it now includes new or additional material on: the effectiveness of beta-beta feedback as a method of obtaining coordination during turns using the F-15 as the aircraft model; the root locus analysis of a generic acceleration autopilot used in many air-to-air and surface-to-air guided missiles; the guidance systems of the AIM-9L Sidewinder as well as bank-to-turn missiles; various types of guidance, including proportional navigation and line-of-sight and lead-angle command guidance; the coupling of the output of a director fire control system into the autopilot; the analysis of multivariable control systems; and methods for modeling the human pilot, plus the integration of the human pilot into an aircraft flight control system. Also features many new additions to the appendices.Table of ContentsLongitudinal Dynamics. Longitudinal Autopilots. Lateral Dynamics. Lateral Autopilots. Inertial Cross-Coupling. Self-Adaptive Autopilots. Missile Control Systems. Guidance Systems. Integrated Flight/Fire Control System. Multivariable Control Systems. Structural Flexibility. Application of Statistical Design Principles. Pilot Modeling. Appendices. Index.

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Book SynopsisIn May 1998, India shocked the world - and many of its own citizens - by detonating five nuclear weapons in the Rajasthan desert. This title presents a comprehensive history of how the world's largest democracy, has grappled with the twin desires to have and to renounce the bomb.Trade Review"One does not have to agree with all of Mr. Perkovich's arguments to recognize that much of what passes as conventional wisdom in international relations today is simply not true. Accordingly, his book is a useful antidote to many of the illusions of our age." - Mackubin Thomas Owens, Washington Times "Meticulously researched and well-written." - The Economist "Perkovich's epic book provides not only one of the most detailed and authoritative accounts of India's nuclear weapon programme but also one of the most cogent constructions of India's nuclear rationale." - W.P.S. Sidhu, Ethnic Conflict Research Digest "Perkovich has written the definitive account of nuclear decision-making in India. At the same time, he makes a major contribution to nonproliferation scholarship in general." - R.A. Strong, Choice "An extraordinary and perhaps definitive account of 50 years of Indian nuclear policymaking." - Foreign Affairs "Essential reading for those concerned with the issue of non-proliferation." - Robert W. Cahn, Nature "The most authoritative and exhaustive account so far of the development of India's nuclear programme since independence. This meticulously researched volume is an outstanding contribution to a subject mired in deliberate misunderstandings." - Gurharpal Singh, Times Higher Education Supplement "No book written in recent times - in fact, at any time since 1947 - on India's nuclear bomb can be compared to George Perkovich's book in its wide coverage, insightful research and sheer objectivity. In all these three departments this book excels beyond measure." - M. V. Kamath, The Daily Mail (India) "Rich, definitive...at all times fair. It is hard to see how it will be superseded." - Lawrence Freedman, Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction ONE Developing the Technological Base for the Nuclear Option 1948-1963 TWO The First Compromise Shift toward a "Peaceful Nuclear Explosive" 1964 THREE The Search for Help Abroad and the Emergence of Nonproliferation DECEMBER 1964-AUGUST 1965 FOUR War and Leadership Transitions at Home AUGUST 1965-MAY 1966 FIVE The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Secretly Renewed Work on a Nuclear Explosive 1966-1968 SIX Political Tumult and Inattention to the Nuclear Program 1969-1971 SEVEN India Explodes a "Peaceful" Nuclear Device 1971- 1974 EIGHT The Nuclear Program Stalls 1975-1980 NINE More Robust Nuclear Policy Is Considered 1980-1984 TEN Nuclear Capabilities Grow and Policy Ambivalence Remains NOVEMBER 1984-DECEMBER1987 ELEVEN The Nuclear Threat Grows Amid Political Uncertainty 1988-1990 TWELVE American Nonproliferation Initiatives Flounder 1991- 1994 THIRTEEN India Verges on Nuclear Tests 1995-MAY 1996 FOURTEEN India Rejects the CTBT JUNE 1996-DECEMBER 1997 FIFTEEN The Bombs That Roared 1998 Conclusion: Exploded illusions of the Nuclear Age Afterword: January 1999-January 2001 APPENDIX India's Nuclear Infrastructure NOTES INDEX

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Book SynopsisThere has been no use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nina Tannenwald argues that this was not inevitable, but that a tradition of non-use of nuclear weapons has grown up, based on the feeling that nuclear weapons are not a legitimate weapon of war.Trade Review'At a time when the actual use of nuclear weapons is being contemplated as 'mini-nukes' or 'bunker-busters', Nina Tannenwald's book is a timely reminder of humanity's visceral recoiling from the use of the world's most destructive weapon.' Jayantha Dhanapala, Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the USA'The Nuclear Taboo is a compelling account of the role of moral restraint in international politics. Tannenwald explains how the habit of non-use has become expected and required behavior, reminding us that there was nothing inevitable about it. She traces the historical trajectory and effect of the taboo on international power politics. She also raises perhaps the most important war-related issue of our time: will the nuclear taboo be broken in light of new technologies and new threats? Read this book and find out how beliefs about right and wrong conduct have shaped the choices of policy makers and the expectations of the public. No explanation of international politics in the nuclear age will be complete without it.' Joel H. Rosenthal, President, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs'Nina Tannenwald has written a powerful and provocative book examining the influence of ethical norms on U.S. leaders' nuclear weapons decisions. Her thesis that a nuclear taboo has taken hold will be widely read and hotly debated in both university classrooms and inside defense ministries in all nuclear nations.' Scott D. Sagan, Stanford UniversityTable of Contents1. Introduction: the tradition of nuclear non-use; 2. Explaining non-use; 3. Hiroshima and the origins of the nuclear taboo; 4. The Korean War: the emerging taboo; 5. The rise of the nuclear taboo, 1953–1960; 6. Nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War; 7. Institutionalizing the taboo, 1960–1989; 8. The 1991 Gulf War; 9. The taboo in the post-Cold War world; 10. Conclusion: the prospects for the nuclear taboo.

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Book SynopsisIt grips like a python from the first page, squeezing the breath out of the reader' DAILY MAILOutstanding' SUNDAY TIMESBreathless action' THE TIMESHidden from prying Western satellites, Iranian scientists are at work on a banned device . . . They are acting on the orders of a renegade cell within Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose objective is to transform their country into a nuclear-armed nation, and so seal its domination of the Middle East.Britain's intelligence agencies know something is up. Someone on the inside is ready to hand over information - but the rendezvous with SIS officer Luke Carlton goes bloodily wrong . . . Then MI6 sees an opportunity to recruit an individual with unique access to the IRGC hardliners. Luke is chosen to reel them in. Going into Iran undercover is dangerous enough, but then there's a killing and a kidnapping and the British government is presentedTrade ReviewConfirms Frank Gardner’s place among the pantheon of distinguished reporters who have become excellent thriller writers, including Gerald Seymour and Frederick Forsyth . . . utterly authentic . . . it grips like a python from the first page, squeezing the breath out of the reader. * DAILY MAIL *Outstanding. * SUNDAY TIMES *Frank Gardner’s second thriller is even closer than his first, Crisis, to dealing with the world’s most immediate fears . . . current international events do not necessarily turn into exciting novels, but Gardner skilfully mixes knowledge garnered as the BBC’s security correspondent with breathless action. -- Marcel Berlins * THE TIMES *Lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending. Good stuff. -- Frederick Forsyth * DAILY MAIL *Crisis, the debut two years ago by the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, was much admired, and the second in his Luke Carlton series is even better . . . its themes of Iranian bomb production and divisions in the country’s elite have great topicality. -- John Dugdale * SUNDAY TIMES 'Thriller of the Month' *

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Book SynopsisA riveting, immersive account of the agonizing decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan—a crucial turning point in World War II and geopolitical history—with you-are-there immediacy by the New York Times bestselling author of Ike’s Bluff and Sea of Thunder.“As Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer shows, the shockwaves reverberate still. The veteran biographer Evan Thomas now enters the debate.”—The Wall Street JournalAN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEARAt 9:20 a.m. on the morning of May 30, General Groves receives a message to report to the office of the secretary of war “at once.” Stimson is waiting for him. He wants to know: has Groves selected the targets yet?So begins this suspenseful, impeccably researched history that draws on new access to diaries to tell the story of three men who were intimately involved with America’s decision to drop the atomic bomb—and Japan’s decision to surrender. They are Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who oversaw J. Robert Oppenheimer under the Manhattan Project; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who supervised the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo, the only one in Emperor Hirohito’s Supreme War Council who believed even before the bombs were dropped that Japan should surrender. Henry Stimson had served in the administrations of five presidents, but as Oppenheimer’s work progressed, he found himself tasked with the unimaginable decision of determining whether to deploy the bomb. The new president, Harry S. Truman, thus far a peripheral figure in the momentous decision, accepted Stimson’s recommendation to drop the bomb. Army Air Force Commander Gen. Spaatz ordered the planes to take off. Like Stimson, Spaatz agonized over the command even as he recognized it would end the war. After the bombs were dropped, Foreign Minister Togo was finally able to convince the emperor to surrender.To bring these critical events to vivid life, bestselling author Evan Thomas draws on the diaries of Stimson, Togo and Spaatz, contemplating the immense weight of their historic decision. In Road to Surrender, an immersive, surprising, moving account, Thomas lays out the behind-the-scenes thoughts, feelings, motivations, and decision-making of three people who changed history.

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Book SynopsisPhysicians were essential to the Manhattan Project, keeping participants and Americans near test sites safe from radiation. But they also downplayed the risks when military exigency demanded. James Nolan tells the story of these conflicted healers, who used their medical authority to enable the most lethal form of warfare humanity has yet devised.Trade ReviewUsually histories of the nuclear project at Los Alamos, N.M., during World War II dwell on tensions between the military officers overseeing the project and the physicists doing the necessary research. In this striking study, James L. Nolan Jr. looks at the disquieting participation of members of a third profession, medicine…[A] powerful and readable book. -- Thomas E. Ricks * New York Times Book Review *An admirable account of the central role of physicians in the Manhattan Project and its aftermath…Nolan’s skillful weaving of his grandfather’s story into an account of the pressures exerted on medical ethics by time, place, and circumstance makes for compelling reading. -- Jonathan D. Moreno * American Scientist *Through a many-layered story of people making momentous decisions under the most trying of circumstances, James Nolan plumbs deep questions about science and technology, medicine and war. Atomic Doctors is a special achievement—an important work of scholarship that is also a gripping and moving read. -- Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows and The Glass CageFascinating and disturbing, Atomic Doctors provides a behind-the-scenes view of the birth of the bomb. It’s a crucial addition to the literature of the atomic age. It also raises essential questions about science, society, and the moral compromises made in their service. -- Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth ExtinctionJames Nolan combines a compelling narrative of his grandfather’s experiences on the Manhattan Project with illuminating history and a morally sensitive account of medical dilemmas at a time of national crisis. Atomic Doctors is a profound and important book. -- Mary Ann Glendon, author of The Forum and the TowerWhat did it mean to have a calling as a physician in the making and use of the atomic bomb at the dawn of the nuclear age? James Nolan tells a riveting story of his grandfather and other physicians associated with the Manhattan Project, all of whom were faced with determining their allegiance to the Hippocratic ideal of primum non nocere (first, do no harm) while interacting with both scientists and soldiers intent on creating an atomic weapon that they believed would end the war. Nolan’s historical account is also a brilliant sociological assessment of the abiding tensions among these very different constituencies and of a cultural belief in the blessings of technology that continue to define modern life and its discontents. -- Jonathan B. Imber, author of Trusting DoctorsDescribe[s] how American doctors became connected to troubling events during World War II that raised thorny moral issues around medicine and war. -- Lawrence D. Freedman * Foreign Affairs *A disturbing account of the early years of the atomic bomb, when safety took second place to winning World War II…Haunting…A solid narrative of America’s painful introduction to atomic radiation. * Kirkus Reviews *This fine-grained and lucidly written account illuminates a little-known aspect of America’s nuclear history. * Publishers Weekly *James L. Nolan’s Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age focuses on the role of his grandfather James F. Nolan (1915–83) as a research physician in the unfolding drama of developing a nuclear bomb…[Nolan] clarifies important historical facts and opens an interdisciplinary academic discourse about the role of nuclear technology in American society. This approach makes the meticulously researched publication, perfectly placed seventy-five years after the Trinity test, a very readable book, despite its tragic subject. It gives a truthful insight into the complexity of a physician’s conscience and complicity at the dawn of the nuclear age. -- Eva Castringius * H-Net Reviews *Nolan's Atomic Doctors is a splendid, valuable, and necessary book. -- Leo van Bergen * Medicine, Conflict and Survival *That the military acted to deal with the medical concerns about radiation only when faced with legal pressure or loss of face is also an all too modern concept for not just the military but society…There is much for a reader to take away from the book regarding history and ethics. -- Lt. Col. Scott C. Martin, USAF * Air & Space Power Journal *As the grandson of the protagonist of the book, James L. Nolan, Jr. crafts a stunning narrative, in which personal accounts and family experiences are successfully amalgamated with academic rigor, situated within a large historical framework…Offer[s] counter-narratives that shed new insight into the dominant narrative of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -- Yuki Miyamoto * Western Historical Quarterly *Provides valuable historical background on the longstanding efforts to protect human health and the environment and understand the effects of radiation exposure…A must-read for anyone interested in understanding the history of nuclear research, weapons development and testing. -- Eric Boyle, Office of Legacy Management, US Department of EnergyIlluminates how Dr. Nolan at Los Alamos and two physician colleagues, Louis Hempelmann and Stafford Warren, dealt with the frightening human effects of nuclear radiation from the bomb. Combining an effective analysis of their efforts with a compelling telling of Dr. Nolan’s own story, the book enlarges America’s atomic bomb experience as a case study of truly disruptive technology in war and society. -- Sidney Perkowitz * Science Sketches *Carefully researched and engagingly written…As Nolan concludes, the willingness of health professionals—including physicians—to do the military’s bidding, and to condone experiments that were ‘technically sweet’ but ethically dubious, means that ‘the long shadow of the Manhattan Project…is still with us. -- Gregg Herken * California History *This story, full of both poignant family life and the challenges of working at remote U.S. military locations, is a tale worth reading not only for the historical value, but also to illustrate the dilemma that radiation posed to US leadership and downward through the ranks to the medical personnel…Highly recommended. -- Mark L. Maiello * Journal of Nuclear Materials Management *It is hard to imagine a more appropriate author for this impressive work of scholarship and interpretation than [Nolan]…It is an eminently readable history of the early years of the atomic age, presented as a case study that raises broader questions about the relationship between technological determinism and human freedom. -- Rachelle Linner * Technology and Society *In this gripping book, James L. Nolan Jr. narrates…a compelling commentary on not only the ethics of atomic warfare but also the technological experiments of our own age, including artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. -- Abena Dove Osseo-Asare * Technology and Culture *

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Book SynopsisThe US-Soviet arms race, told through the story of a colorful and visionary American Air Force officer—melding biography, history, world affairs, and science to transport the reader back and forth from individual drama to world stage. Compulsively readable and important.” —The New York Times Book ReviewIn this never-before-told story, Neil Sheehan—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award -- details American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever’s quest to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, and describes American efforts to develop the unstoppable nuclear-weapon delivery system, the intercontinental ballistic missile, the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust rather than to be fired in anger.   In a sweeping narrative, Sheehan brings to life a huge cast of some of the most intriguing characters of

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Book SynopsisExamines why some states seek nuclear weapons while others renounce them. Looking at nine cases in East Asia and the Middle East, this book finds two distinct regional patterns. It shows how, in East Asia, the norm since the late 1960s has been to forswear nuclear weapons, and in the Middle East, the opposite is the case.Trade ReviewWinner of the 2008 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, American Political Science Association Co-Winner of the 2008 Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Award for the Best Book on International History and Politics, International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association "Nuclear Logics is a ground-breaking work demonstrating how theory-oriented studies in political science should be conducted. Nuclear Logics is an admirable undertaking which makes an indispensable contribution to IR theory development."--Shih-Yu Chou, Political Studies Review "The most comprehensive, theoretical, and systematic challenge [to system-level imperatives] in years... This is an impressive work ... of primary value to experts and graduate students."--International Studies Review "Solingen's argument is cogent and well researched ... convincing and intuitive ... demolishes the structural realist account... It deserves a wide readership."--International Affairs "A serious, scholarly piece of work ... reinvigorating the already rich theoretical debate on this issue... Her methodological tools could prove useful in determining which Middle Eastern countries are more likely to go nuclear in reaction to Iran's programme."--Survival "Proliferation theory steps outside the ivory tower in Etel Solingen's recent book, Nuclear Logics."--The Nonproliferation Review "The cutting edge of nonproliferation research ... should be of great interest to both policy practitioners and scholars. [This book] display(s) a combination of theoretical sophistication, methodological rigor, focused comparative analysis involving original field research, and attention to hypothesis testing rarely found in the nonproliferation literature."--International Security "Nuclear Logics is a timely study with important theoretical and practical implications. At the theoretical level, it encourages us to set aside monocausal explanations in favour of a more sophisticated but still transportable approach. At the practical level, the message that endogenous forces are vital to explaining the origins of nuclear behaviour can be incredibly valuable to policymakers who too often see proliferation as a simple action-reaction phenomenon driven by monolithic political forces. It deserves a wide readership."--Michael Vance, International Affairs "[A]mbitious, insightful, and informative... The book is most impressive ... in its deliberate and judicious assessment of explanations drawn from relevant realist, neoliberal, constructivist, and democracy literatures. Indeed, the reasoned assault on realist arguments gives this book considerable punch."--James H. Lebovic, Political Science Quarterly "Debates about the relevance of systematic political science theory for the maker of concrete policy decisions will perhaps never end. Solingen is to be congratulated for creating an interesting vehicle for such debate."--George H. Quester, International History Review "In addition to her innovative argument, Solingen's research design and the way she carries it out are impressive. Solingen does a carefully focused comparison of nine states in East Asia and the Middle East and, in doing so, provides an excellent example of rigorous qualitative research that should appear on graduate method course syllabi."--Victor Asal,Journal of Peace Research "As a work about International Relations theories of nuclear decisions, there should be little, if any, to be added to this remarkable achievement by Solingen."--Matake Kamiya, International Relations of the Asia-PacificTable of ContentsPreface ix Part One: Introduction and Conceptual Framework 1 Chapter One: Introduction 3 Chapter Two: Alternative Logics on Denuclearization 23 Part Two: East Asia: Denuclearization as the Norm, Nuclearization as the Anomaly 55 Chapter Three: Japan 57 Chapter Four: South Korea 82 Chapter Five: Taiwan (Republic of China) 100 Chapter Six: North Korea 118 Part Three: The Middle East: Nuclearization as the Norm, Denuclearization as the Anomaly 141 Chapter Seven: Iraq 143 Chapter Eight: Iran 164 Chapter Nine: Israel 187 Chapter Ten: Libya 213 Chapter Eleven: Egypt 229 Part Four: Conclusions 247 Chapter Twelve: Findings, Futures, and Policy Implications 249 Notes 301 References 351 Index 385

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"“Vipin Narang’s new book, Seeking the Bomb, is an important contribution to our understanding of nuclear proliferation and, by extension, ways to prevent it . . . . the book, unfortunately, could not be more timely"---Henrietta Wilson, Times Literary Supplement"[Seeking The Bomb] brilliantly dissects and theorizes how states pursue nuclear weapons. . . .[An] innovative account."---Rabia Akhtar, International Affairs

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"“Vipin Narang’s new book, Seeking the Bomb, is an important contribution to our understanding of nuclear proliferation and, by extension, ways to prevent it . . . . the book, unfortunately, could not be more timely"---Henrietta Wilson, Times Literary Supplement"[Seeking The Bomb] brilliantly dissects and theorizes how states pursue nuclear weapons. . . .[An] innovative account."---Rabia Akhtar, International Affairs

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Book Synopsis

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