Since before the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, the history of nuclear warfare has been tangled with the spaces and places of scientific research and weapons testing, armament and disarmament, pacifism and proliferation. Nuclear geography gives us the tools to understand these events as well as the extraordinary human cost of nuclear weapons. Disarming Doomsday explores the secret history of nuclear weapons by studying the places they build and tear apart, from Los Alamos to Hiroshima. It looks at the legacy of nuclear imperialism from weapons testing on Christmas Island and across the South Pacific, as well as the lasting harm this has caused to both indigenous communities and the soldiers that were ordered to conduct tests. Tying these complex geographies together for the first time, Disarming Doomsday takes us forward, describing how geographers and geotechnology continue to shape nuclear war and imagining ways to help prevent it in the future.
Shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for The California Book Award in Nonfiction The San Francisco Chronicle's Best of the Year List Foreign Affairs Best Books of the Year In These Times “Best Books of the Year" Huffington Post's Ten Excellent December Books List LitHub's “Five Books Making News This Week” From the legendary whistle-blower who revealed the Pentagon Papers, an eyewitness exposé of the dangers of America's Top Secret, seventy-year-long nuclear policy that continues to this day. Here, for the first time, former high-level defense analyst Daniel Ellsberg reveals his shocking firsthand account of America's nuclear program in the 1960s. From the remotest air bases in the Pacific Command, where he discovered that the authority to initiate use of nuclear weapons was widely delegated, to the secret plans for general nuclear war under Eisenhower, which, if executed, would cause the near-extinction of humanity, Ellsberg shows that the legacy of this most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization--and its proposed renewal under the Trump administration--threatens our very survival. No other insider with high-level access has written so candidly of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, and nothing has fundamentally changed since that era. Framed as a memoir--a chronicle of madness in which Ellsberg acknowledges participating--this gripping exposé reads like a thriller and offers feasible steps we can take to dismantle the existing "doomsday machine" and avoid nuclear catastrophe, returning Ellsberg to his role as whistle-blower. The Doomsday Machine is thus a real-life Dr. Strangelove story and an ultimately hopeful--and powerfully important--book about not just our country, but the future of the world.
At the dawn of the Atomic Age, Americans encountered troubling new questions brought about by the nuclear revolution: In a representative democracy, who is responsible for national public safety? How do citizens imagine themselves as members of the national collective when faced with the priority of individual survival? What do nuclear weapons mean for transparency and accountability in government? What role should scientific experts occupy within a democratic government? Nuclear weapons created a new arena for debating individual and collective rights. In turn, they threatened to destabilize the very basis of American citizenship. As Sarah E. Robey shows in Atomic Americans, people negotiated the contours of nuclear citizenship through overlapping public discussions about survival. Policymakers and citizens disagreed about the scale of civil defense programs and other public safety measures. As the public learned more about the dangers of nuclear fallout, critics articulated concerns about whether the federal government was operating in its citizens' best interests. By the early 1960s, a significant antinuclear movement had emerged, which ultimately contributed to the 1963 nuclear testing ban. Atomic Americans tells the story of a thoughtful body politic engaged in rewriting the rubric of rights and responsibilities that made up American citizenship in the Atomic Age.
The contributors to this book describe, discuss, and evaluate the normative reframing brought about by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (the Ban Treaty), taking you on a journey through its genesis and negotiation history to the shape of the emerging global nuclear order. Adopted by the United Nations on 7 July 2017, the Ban Treaty came into effect on 22 January 2021. For advocates and supporters, weapons that were always immoral are now also illegal. To critics, it represents a profound threat to the stability of the existing global nuclear order with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty as the normative anchor. As the most significant leap in nuclear disarmament in fifty years and a rare case study of successful state-civil society partnership in multilateral diplomacy, the Ban Treaty challenges the established order. The book’s contributors are leading experts on the Ban Treaty, including senior scholars, policymakers and civil society activists. A vital guide to the Ban Treaty for students of nuclear disarmament, arms control and diplomacy as well as for policymakers in those fields.
“How did this happen? What about the detail assigned to watch Elaine and the girls?” These thoughts raced through the President of the United States, Jerald Mortensen’s mind as he anguished over the tape he had just recently received. This tape turns out to be the impetus that brings Reggie Nutsbagh and Toby, Preston, Private Detectives, into this complex problem. They had come to the attention of the President and his Chief of Staff, Garrett Farmer, when their courageous exploits across the European Continent were revealed to them by the German and French governments. These two detectives, one from Las Vegas, Nevada, and the other from Bremerton, Washington became involved in a desperate dash across Europe (Book #3, The Dawn over Europe) to deny a terrorists group access to the dreaded anthrax virus and an antidote to the virus developed by three sons of very rich parents. Although from foreign countries they were attending a prestigious university in the United States and during their studies had developed both the virus and an antidote. They work was discovered by a group of men wanting to use the virus to cripple the United States and its allies. Nothing about this mission or the persons responsible for the favorable results in denying terrorist this deadly virus could be announced or disclosed the public so they were honored in private, with a few of our nation’s high ranking government officials present, including the President and his Chief of Staff. Now the Chief of Staff, Garrett Farmer, without getting a blessing from his boss, the President, called for the two detectives to return to the Washington DC to assist the President this serious matter. When told what Garrett has done the President responds, “How can they do anything when even the Secret Service can’t find a clue? We have less than forty hours before the kidnappers make their demands. It would take hours just to get them here.” “Actually, my old friend, they are on their way here now. They should be landing at Andrews very shortly. I told them only that the President had need of their services.” The two detectives, had not too long ago, returned from a long and dangerous mission in Europe involving the anthrax virus now and were just settling in with their families now they were called back to our nation’s capital and would find themselves embroiled in another mystery involving the kidnapping of the President’s family. This kidnapping would turn into something more serious and along the way personal problems surface when Reggie’s wife, Brandy dies in child birth leaving him with a new born daughter. His partner, Toby Preston, thinking about a single father trying to raise a daughter, invites a young lady, Monika, who became enamored with Reggie during their escapades in Europe, to come to the United States and help Reggie with his new born daughter. But there is a catch to this invitation which will further complicate an already complex situation. These personal problems boil over in both households and could sideline this investigation before it gets started. But duty to country comes first so pushing these personal problems aside the two detectives dive into the Presidents dilemma and using the skills they have developed over the years of operating together in an attempt to solve the kidnapping of his family. This kidnapping becomes even more and our two detectives receive another invitation to talk to the President on a more serious matter, the theft of Nuclear Devises from a Submarine Base in the State of Washington. This situation becomes a race against time as our two detectives are taxed to the maximum, as time and the threat of a Nuclear detonation in a large populated area creates an added dimension of fear. Using the full complement of personnel from their Broken Dreams Detective Agency they dive into the dangerous situation, one that takes the
Anti-gun zealots in the United States insist that the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms is a “relic.” Try telling that to the people of Ukraine. Ukraine never protected its citizens’ right to keep and bear arms. But as Russia was about to invade, Ukraine did a critical about-face. Ukraine’s government encouraged civilians to carry firearms to defend themselves and their country. It handed out 25,000 fully automatic weapons, while Ukrainians rushed to buy AR-15 rifles that American gun-controllers insist “no one needs.” Did the arming of Ukraine’s civilians make a difference? You bet. Armed citizens have played a crucial role in holding off the massive Russian army. This powerful book highlights how they did it and what they did wrong. Constitutional scholar and host of The Four Boxes Diner YouTube Channel, Mark W. Smith reveals why the lessons learned in Ukraine matter to Americans, and why we must tirelessly resist all efforts to disarm us. Unless we heed Ukraine’s cautionary example, we too may pay a steep price.
This book discusses how to develop green transitions which benefit, include and respect marginalised social groups. Diversity and Inclusion in Environmentalism explores the challenge of taking into account issues of equity and justice in the green transformation and shows that ignoring these issues risks exacerbating the gap between the rich and the poor, the marginalised and included, and undermining widespread support for climate change mitigation. Expert contributors provide evidence and analysis in relation to the thinking and practice that has prevented us from building a broad base of people who are willing and able to take the action necessary to successfully overcome the current ecological crises. Providing examples from a wide range of marginalised and/or oppressed groups including women, disabled people, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and others (LGBTQ+) community, the authors demonstrate how the issues and concerns of these groups are often undervalued in environmental policy-making and environmental social movements. Overall, this book supports environmental academics and practitioners to choose and campaign for effective, equitable and widely supported environmental policy, thereby enabling a smoother transition to sustainability. This volume will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of environmental justice, social and environmental policy, planning and environmental sociology.
In 2008, the iconic doomsday clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientistswas set at five minutes to midnight—two minutes closer to Armageddon than in 1962, when John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev went eyeball to eyeball over missiles in Cuba! We still live in an echo chamber of fear, after eight years in which the Bush administration and its harshest critics reinforced each other's worst fears about the Bomb. And yet, there have been no mushroom clouds or acts of nuclear terrorism since the Soviet Union dissolved, let alone since 9/11. Our worst fears still could be realized at any time, but Michael Krepon argues that the United States has never possessed more tools and capacity to reduce nuclear dangers than it does today - from containment and deterrence to diplomacy, military strength, and arms control. The bloated nuclear arsenals of the Cold War years have been greatly reduced, nuclear weapon testing has almost ended, and all but eight countries have pledged not to acquire the Bomb. Major powers have less use for the Bomb than at any time in the past. Thus, despite wars, crises, and Murphy's Law, the dark shadows cast by nuclear weapons can continue to recede. Krepon believes that positive trends can continue, even in the face of the twin threats of nuclear terrorism and proliferation that have been exacerbated by the Bush administration's pursuit of a war of choice in Iraq based on false assumptions. Krepon advocates a "back to basics" approach to reducing nuclear dangers, reversing the Bush administration's denigration of diplomacy, deterrence, containment, and arms control. As he sees it, "The United States has stumbled before, but America has also made it through hard times and rebounded. With wisdom, persistence, and luck, another dark passage can be successfully navigated."
A Research Agenda for Military Geographies explores how military activities and phenomena are shaped by geography, and how geographies are in turn shaped by military practices. A variety of future research agendas are mapped out, examining the questions faced by geographers when studying the military and its effects.
This book delves into the everyday spaces, diverse mobilities and affective potency of weather. It presents cutting-edge research into the multiplicity of weather phenomena and analyses the lived experiences of humans in conjunction with contemporary issues, notably climate change. The book considers how everyday experiences of weather in the mundane lives of people are linked to broader changes in weather patterns and climate change. Heat, dust, ice, snow, precipitation, sunlight, clouds, tides and fog are states of weather that impact on the ways in which humans become intertwined with landscapes. Our experiences with weather are diverse and ever-changing, and engaging with weather entangles humans with mobilities, materials and landscapes. This book thus explores affective and sensory resonances, drawing upon a variety of theoretical, empirical and creative material to investigate how weather is perceived in different social and cultural contexts. Key themes focus on the mobilities generated by weather, the affective and sensual potency of weather, and the diverse cultural forms and practices that exemplify how weather is historically, geographically and artistically represented. Offering a social and cultural understanding of weather events, this book contributes to a growing literature on weather across various disciplines, including human geography and cultural geography, and will thus appeal to students and scholars of geography, sociology, humanities, cultural studies and the arts.
