British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-73

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-73 PDF Author: John R. Walker
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9781409411123
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book Here

Book Description
Focusing on a key twenty year period, this study explores Britain's role in efforts to bring about a nuclear test ban treaty between 1954 and 1973. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it examines the nature of defence planning, Anglo-American relationships, the efficacy of British diplomacy and UK contributions to arms control and disarmament. The appraisal of the relationship between the requirements and developments of the UK nuclear weapons programme against the countervailing international and domestic pressures for a test ban treaty will be of interest to anyone studying post-war British defence and foreign policy, history of science, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and international relations, or who is looking for background information on current events involving nuclear proliferation and disarmament.

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-73

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-73 PDF Author: John R. Walker
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9781409411123
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book Here

Book Description
Focusing on a key twenty year period, this study explores Britain's role in efforts to bring about a nuclear test ban treaty between 1954 and 1973. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it examines the nature of defence planning, Anglo-American relationships, the efficacy of British diplomacy and UK contributions to arms control and disarmament. The appraisal of the relationship between the requirements and developments of the UK nuclear weapons programme against the countervailing international and domestic pressures for a test ban treaty will be of interest to anyone studying post-war British defence and foreign policy, history of science, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and international relations, or who is looking for background information on current events involving nuclear proliferation and disarmament.

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-1973

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban 1954-1973 PDF Author: John R. Walker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317171691
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 433

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1962 Dean Acheson famously described Britain as having lost an Empire but not yet found a role. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the realms of nuclear weapons. An increasingly marginal world power, successive post-war British governments felt that an independent nuclear deterrent was essential if the country was to remain at the top table of world diplomacy. Focusing on a key twenty-year period, this study explores Britain's role in efforts to bring about a nuclear test ban treaty between 1954 and 1973. Taking a broadly chronological approach, it examines the nature of defence planning, the scientific goals that nuclear tests were designed to secure, Anglo-American relationships, the efficacy of British diplomacy and its contribution to arms control and disarmament. A key theme of the study is to show how the UK managed to balance the conflicting pressures created by its determination to remain a credible nuclear power whilst wanting to pursue disarmament objectives, and how these pressures shifted over the period in question. Based on a wealth of primary sources this book opens up the largely ignored subject of the impact of arms control on the UK nuclear weapons programme. Its appraisal of the relationship between the requirements and developments of the UK nuclear weapons programme against international and domestic pressures for a test ban treaty will be of interest to anyone studying post-war British defence and foreign policy, history of science, arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation and international relations. It also provides important background information on current events involving nuclear proliferation and disarmament.

Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation

Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation PDF Author: Allan S. Krass
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100020054X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
Originally published in 1983, this book presents both the technical and political information necessary to evaluate the emerging threat to world security posed by recent advances in uranium enrichment technology. Uranium enrichment has played a relatively quiet but important role in the history of efforts by a number of nations to acquire nuclear weapons and by a number of others to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. For many years the uranium enrichment industry was dominated by a single method, gaseous diffusion, which was technically complex, extremely capital-intensive, and highly inefficient in its use of energy. As long as this remained true, only the richest and most technically advanced nations could afford to pursue the enrichment route to weapon acquisition. But during the 1970s this situation changed dramatically. Several new and far more accessible enrichment techniques were developed, stimulated largely by the anticipation of a rapidly growing demand for enrichment services by the world-wide nuclear power industry. This proliferation of new techniques, coupled with the subsequent contraction of the commercial market for enriched uranium, has created a situation in which uranium enrichment technology might well become the most important contributor to further nuclear weapon proliferation. Some of the issues addressed in this book are: A technical analysis of the most important enrichment techniques in a form that is relevant to analysis of proliferation risks; A detailed projection of the world demand for uranium enrichment services; A summary and critique of present institutional non-proliferation arrangements in the world enrichment industry, and An identification of the states most likely to pursue the enrichment route to acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Thinking about Nuclear Weapons

Thinking about Nuclear Weapons PDF Author: Michael Quinlan
Publisher: Royal United Services Institute (RUSI)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 94

Get Book Here

Book Description
En studie vedr. kernevåbens betydning og indflydelse på sikkerhedspolitik og magtbalance

Dropping Britain's First H-Bomb

Dropping Britain's First H-Bomb PDF Author: Kenneth Hubbard
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783460644
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Get Book Here

Book Description
On 15 May 1957 Vickers Valiant V-Bomber X.D.818 under the command of Wg. Cdr. Kenneth Hubbard, O.C. 49 Squadron R.A.F., dropped Britains first live thermonuclear bomb. The success of Operation Grapple broadcast to the world that the UK had the resolve and the capability to protect her own democracy and that of her Commonwealth. It was a major breakthrough that ensured Britain maintained her place in the most senior influential positions of the United Nations and other corridors of world power, and in the ensuing years provide Britains deterrent throughout the decades of the Cold War.The theme of this book is to explain how the R.A.F. selected and trained the crews who would be responsible for the precision dropping of the several weapons that would detonate during Grapple. It also provides a complete background to the parts played by all other services during this unique period in British history.

The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent

The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent PDF Author: Great Britain: Ministry of Defence
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this White Paper, the Government reaffirms its commitment to maintain Britain's independent nuclear capability by investing in a new generation of ballistic missile-carrying submarines and extending the life of the Trident D5 missile. However, in order to ensure the deterrent system is the minimum necessary to provide effective deterrence, there will be a further 20 per cent reduction in operationally available warheads. The Government believes this decision balances the interests of national security against its undertaking to work towards multilateral disarmament and to counter nuclear proliferation, and it is fully compatible with Britain's international legal obligations. The White Paper discusses the policy context and sets out the reasons why decisions on the future of the UK's nuclear deterrent system are needed now, as well as considering the various options and their costs, and the industrial aspects involved in building the new submarines in the UK.

Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy

Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy PDF Author: Todd S. Sechser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110710694X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Get Book Here

Book Description
Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? This book argues that they are useful for deterrence but not for offensive purposes.

Britain and Disarmament

Britain and Disarmament PDF Author: John R. Walker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317172396
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the use of poison gas during the First World War and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War, nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) weapons have registered high on the fears of governments and individuals alike. Recognising both the particular horror of these weapons, and their potential for inflicting mass death and destruction, much effort has been expended in finding ways to eliminate such weapons on a multi-lateral level. Based on extensive official archives, this book looks at how successive British governments approached the subject of control and disarmament between 1956 and 1975. This period reflects the UK's landmark decision in 1956 to abandon its offensive chemical weapons programme (a decision that was reversed in 1963, but never fully implemented), and ends with the internal travails over the possible use of CR (tear gas) in Northern Ireland. Whilst the issue of nuclear arms control has been much debated, the integration of biological and chemical weapons into the wider disarmament picture is much less well understood, there being no clear statement by the UK authorities for much of the period under review in this book as to whether the country even possessed such weapons or had an active research and development programme. Through a thorough exploration of government records the book addresses fundamental questions relating to the history of NBC weapons programmes, including the military, economic and political pressures that influenced policy; the degree to which the UK was a reluctant or enthusiastic player on the international arms control stage; and the effect of international agreements on Britain's weapons programmes. In exploring these issues, the study provides the first attempt to assess UK NBC arms control policy and practice during the Cold War.

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban

British Nuclear Weapons and the Test Ban PDF Author: John R. Walker
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000875881
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides an overview of how the UK tried to maintain and modernize its strategic and tactical nuclear weapons during 1974-82, whilst also pursuing a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty. The core question addressed in the book is how a test ban treaty would impact on the reliability and safety of the UK’s nuclear weapons and how this would constrain and limit efforts to secure a comprehensive treaty that would prohibit nuclear testing indefinitely. An added complication lay in the fact that a ban treaty could also prevent or limit the UK’s ability to test new warhead designs to replace its existing tactical nuclear weapons and a new strategic successor system to Polaris. How all of this played out between 1974 and 1982, when the UK announced its decision to acquire Trident and the US decided that a test ban treaty was no longer in its security interests, is discussed. A detailed review, based on the available materials in the UK National Archives, also looks at the aims and objectives of UK nuclear tests in Nevada and on the decisions taken on the Chevaline warhead and its Trident replacement. The book also considers whether there was a far greater threat to the UK nuclear programme from shortages of skilled craftsmen and industrial action at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston than from a test ban treaty. It also looks at whether nuclear defence trumped arms control objectives during this period. This book will be of much interest to students of British politics, nuclear proliferation and Cold War History.

Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in South Asia After the Test Ban

Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in South Asia After the Test Ban PDF Author: Eric H. Arnett
Publisher: SIPRI Research Reports
ISBN: 9780198294115
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 118

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the nuclear weapon states continue to reduce their nuclear arsenals and international efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons are reinvigorated, South Asia remains a unique region almost entirely unencumbered by nuclear arms control. Despite the recent popularity of the notion that nuclear deterrence is stabilizing the Indo-Pakistani conflict, there is good reason to believe that the risks of war and the use of nuclear weapons are not fully appreciated. Nevertheless, the prospects for negotiated measures to improve the situation are not good because of the domestic politics on both sides. Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in South Asia after the Test Ban sheds new light on the risks of the current stand-off, the hidden costs of the nuclear options, and the domestic sources of the region's inertia, bringing together Indian, Pakistani and Chinese perspectives.