Description
Book SynopsisNuclear technology is dual use in nature, meaning that it can be used to produce nuclear energy or to build nuclear weapons. Despite security concerns about proliferation, the United States and other nuclear nations have regularly shared with other countries nuclear technology, materials, and knowledge for peaceful purposes. In Atomic Assistance, Matthew Fuhrmann argues that governments use peaceful nuclear assistance as a tool of economic statecraft. Nuclear suppliers hope that they can reap the benefits of foreign aidimproving relationships with their allies, limiting the influence of their adversaries, enhancing their energy security by gaining favorable access to oil supplieswithout undermining their security. By providing peaceful nuclear assistance, however, countries inadvertently help spread nuclear weapons.
Fuhrmann draws on several cases of Atoms for Peace, including U.S. civilian nuclear assistance to Iran from 1957 to 1979; Soviet aid to Libya from 1975 to 1986; F
Trade Review
In a world where officials presume there is a clear, bright line between generating nuclear electricity and producing nuclear weapons, Fuhrmann's book is a sorely needed slap of reality. His thesis, captured in the book's title, certainly is timely:... even purported proliferation-resistant nuclear power plants can produce nuclear weapons-usable plutonium and their fresh fuel can be used to accelerate weapons uranium production.
-- Henry Sokolski * Nonproliferation Review *
The book is a delight as it provides numerous insights into the empirical analysis of data. The author has analysed the comprehensive system of demand and supply of atomic assistance very well. The book is worth reading for everyone who wishes to analyse the never-ending cycle of nuclear proliferation. It provides a comprehensive analysis in simple, clear and easy language with suitable statistical data to support the findings.
-- Priyamvada Mishra * Political Studies Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Unintended Consequences in International Politics1. Definitions and Patterns of Peaceful Nuclear CooperationPart I: Atoms for Peace2. Economic Statecraft and Atoms for Peace: A Theory of Peaceful Nuclear Assistance3. The Historical Record: A First Cut4. Nuclear Arms and Infl uence: Assisting India, Iran, and Libya5. The Thirst for Oil and Other Motives: Nine Puzzling Cases of Assistance6. Oil for Peaceful Nuclear Assistance?Part II: Atoms for War7. Spreading Temptation: Why Nuclear Export Strategies Backfire8. Who Builds Bombs? How Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Facilitates the Spread of Nuclear Weapons9. Have International Institutions Made the World Safer?Conclusion: What Peaceful Nuclear Assistance Teaches Us about International RelationsNotes
Index
