Achieving nuclear ambitions
Subtitle: scientists, politicians and proliferation
By: Jacques E. C. Hymans
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780521767002; 9780521132251
Subjects: POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General; Nuclear weapons; Nuclear nonproliferation
Description: "Despite the global spread of nuclear hardware and knowledge, at least half of the nuclear weapons projects launched since 1970 have definitively failed, and even the successful projects have generally needed far more time than expected. To explain this puzzling slowdown in proliferation, Jacques E. C. Hymans focuses on the relations between politicians and scientific and technical workers in developing countries. By undermining the workers' spirit of professionalism, developing country rulers unintentionally thwart their own nuclear ambitions. Combining rich theoretical analysis, in-depth historical case studies of Iraq, China, Yugoslavia and Argentina and insightful analyses of current-day proliferant states, Achieving Nuclear Ambitions develops a powerful new perspective that effectively counters the widespread fears of a coming cascade of new nuclear powers"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. The puzzle of declining nuclear weapons project efficiency; 2. A theory of nuclear weapons project implementation; 3. Spinning in place: Iraq's fruitless quest for nuclear weapons; 4. How did China's nuclear weapons project succeed?; 5. Proliferation implications of civil nuclear cooperation: theory and a case study of Tito's Yugoslavia; 6. Proliferation implications of footloose nuclear scientists: theory and a case study of Perón's Argentina; 7. Empirical extensions: USSR, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran; 8. Lessons for policy.