The nuclear revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War
The nuclear revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War
The splitting of atomic nuclei carried military implications that powerfully shaped American foreign policy after 1945. Scholars have long wrestled with how these titanic weapons affected the geo-ideological struggle between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies and partners. Where initial reactions focused on the morality and efficacy of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the part they played in precipitating the Cold War, post-revisionist historians associated the nuclear arms race with the Soviet-American distrust and détente even as they credited it with averting World War III. The Cold War’s end occasioned new questions and preoccupations, as historians investigated nuclear proliferation, the cultural assumptions at the heart of nuclear war and peace, and how the nuclear revolution induced a reactionary effort by the world’s most powerful, industrial powers to retain their monopoly on the Bomb.
nuclear physics, atomic diplomacy, arms control, non-proliferation, deterrence, mutual assured destruction, humanitarianism, the antinuclear movement, the Long Peace, the nuclear taboo
Hunt, Jonathan
73c5c183-3b5c-4be7-834c-a0540e103e5f
Dietrich, Christopher R. W.
Hunt, Jonathan
73c5c183-3b5c-4be7-834c-a0540e103e5f
Dietrich, Christopher R. W.
Hunt, Jonathan
(2018)
The nuclear revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War.
In,
Dietrich, Christopher R. W.
(ed.)
A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations, Colonial Era to the Present.
Wiley-Blackwell.
(In Press)
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Book Section
Abstract
The splitting of atomic nuclei carried military implications that powerfully shaped American foreign policy after 1945. Scholars have long wrestled with how these titanic weapons affected the geo-ideological struggle between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies and partners. Where initial reactions focused on the morality and efficacy of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the part they played in precipitating the Cold War, post-revisionist historians associated the nuclear arms race with the Soviet-American distrust and détente even as they credited it with averting World War III. The Cold War’s end occasioned new questions and preoccupations, as historians investigated nuclear proliferation, the cultural assumptions at the heart of nuclear war and peace, and how the nuclear revolution induced a reactionary effort by the world’s most powerful, industrial powers to retain their monopoly on the Bomb.
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 July 2018
Keywords:
nuclear physics, atomic diplomacy, arms control, non-proliferation, deterrence, mutual assured destruction, humanitarianism, the antinuclear movement, the Long Peace, the nuclear taboo
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Local EPrints ID: 431578
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/431578
PURE UUID: 73904c85-368d-4ff9-850e-d419954d548b
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Date deposited: 10 Jun 2019 16:30
Last modified: 13 Mar 2024 19:10
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Editor:
Christopher R. W. Dietrich
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