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Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons
Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer
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Description for Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons
Hardback. Series: Cornell Studies in Security Affairs. Num Pages: 288 pages, 8, 3 black & white halftones, 3 black & white line drawings, 2 maps. BIC Classification: 1FBQ; 1HBL; JPSF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 239 x 163 x 29. Weight in Grams: 586.
Many authoritarian leaders want nuclear weapons, but few manage to acquire them. Autocrats seeking nuclear weapons fail in different ways and to varying degrees-Iraq almost managed it; Libya did not come close. In Unclear Physics, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer compares the two failed nuclear weapons programs, showing that state capacity played a crucial role in the trajectory and outcomes of both projects. Braut-Hegghammer draws on a rich set of new primary sources, collected during years of research in archives, fieldwork across the Middle East, and interviews with scientists and decision makers from both states. She gained access to documents and individuals that ... Read more
Many authoritarian leaders want nuclear weapons, but few manage to acquire them. Autocrats seeking nuclear weapons fail in different ways and to varying degrees-Iraq almost managed it; Libya did not come close. In Unclear Physics, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer compares the two failed nuclear weapons programs, showing that state capacity played a crucial role in the trajectory and outcomes of both projects. Braut-Hegghammer draws on a rich set of new primary sources, collected during years of research in archives, fieldwork across the Middle East, and interviews with scientists and decision makers from both states. She gained access to documents and individuals that ... Read more
Product Details
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2016
Series
Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
Condition
New
Weight
585g
Number of Pages
288
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
ISBN
9781501702785
SKU
V9781501702785
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-11
About Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer
Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo.
Reviews for Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons
Rich in detail and innovative in theory, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer's book provides an original and persuasive analysis of the Iraqi and Libyan nuclear programs. It adds enormously to our understanding of nuclear proliferation and of authoritarian states and their leaders. Unclear Physics is a great contribution.
David Holloway, Raymond A. Spruance Professor in International HistoryStanford University, author of Stalin ... Read more In Unclear Physics, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer offers an alternative interpretation of nuclear history in Iraq and Libya. Her well-researched analysis draws on an impressive set of interviews and archival sources. Anyone interested in nuclear politics will find interesting insights contained in this important book, which is one of the most comprehensive treatments of these two nuclear programs available.
Matthew Fuhrmann, Texas A&M University, author of Atomic Assistance: How Atoms for Peace Programs Cause Nuclear Insecurity [An] exhaustively researched and compelling history.... Braut-Hegghammer's work stands as a valuable reminder that sociology trumps technology when it comes to estimating the potential of a clandestine nuclear-weapon program. The culture that animates a nuclear enterprise matters.
The Nonproliferation Review
A remarkable comparative history of the Iraqi and Libyan nuclear weapons programmes.... [Braut-Hegghammer's] account draws on interviews and rare documents to provide the fullest picture currently available of both programmes.... A thorough, well-researched history of two nuclear programmes, a history that is interesting in its own right but also significantly complicates simple theoretical models about regime type and proliferation. It ultimately reminds us that reality is often far more interesting than the stories we make up.
Survival
Path-breaking.... Braut-Hegghammer makes a major contribution to the burgeoning field of international nuclear history... as well as to the theoretical literature in security and proliferation studies.... A rich harvest of findings that complements and goes beyond that provided by previous studies.... Thoughtful and provocative in its analyses, and sometimes revelatory in its display of new evidence, this is an excellent addition to the literature on proliferation studies and the most authoritative account we have to date of the ill-fated Iraqi and Libyan nuclear programmes.
International Affairs
An insightful account.
Foreign Affairs
For some years I have been puzzling over the question of why some countries that want nuclear weapons succeed in building them and others don't.... What happened with the failures, Libya and Iraq? A good deal of sporadic reading has long persuaded me that one way or the other both countries had or had acquired sufficient means to pursue a program-in the case of Libya there were financial resources and in the case of Iraq both financial and scientific resources. The Libyans started with almost nothing, but the oil boom enabled them to buy what they needed. Yet both countries had leaders-Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi-whose feelings about these weapons were ambivalent and always secondary to preserving the ideology of the regime. Now there is an excellent new book, Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons, by the Norwegian political scientist Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer, that is the most detailed study of these two programs that I have seen.
New York Review of Books
Show Less
David Holloway, Raymond A. Spruance Professor in International HistoryStanford University, author of Stalin ... Read more In Unclear Physics, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer offers an alternative interpretation of nuclear history in Iraq and Libya. Her well-researched analysis draws on an impressive set of interviews and archival sources. Anyone interested in nuclear politics will find interesting insights contained in this important book, which is one of the most comprehensive treatments of these two nuclear programs available.
Matthew Fuhrmann, Texas A&M University, author of Atomic Assistance: How Atoms for Peace Programs Cause Nuclear Insecurity [An] exhaustively researched and compelling history.... Braut-Hegghammer's work stands as a valuable reminder that sociology trumps technology when it comes to estimating the potential of a clandestine nuclear-weapon program. The culture that animates a nuclear enterprise matters.
The Nonproliferation Review
A remarkable comparative history of the Iraqi and Libyan nuclear weapons programmes.... [Braut-Hegghammer's] account draws on interviews and rare documents to provide the fullest picture currently available of both programmes.... A thorough, well-researched history of two nuclear programmes, a history that is interesting in its own right but also significantly complicates simple theoretical models about regime type and proliferation. It ultimately reminds us that reality is often far more interesting than the stories we make up.
Survival
Path-breaking.... Braut-Hegghammer makes a major contribution to the burgeoning field of international nuclear history... as well as to the theoretical literature in security and proliferation studies.... A rich harvest of findings that complements and goes beyond that provided by previous studies.... Thoughtful and provocative in its analyses, and sometimes revelatory in its display of new evidence, this is an excellent addition to the literature on proliferation studies and the most authoritative account we have to date of the ill-fated Iraqi and Libyan nuclear programmes.
International Affairs
An insightful account.
Foreign Affairs
For some years I have been puzzling over the question of why some countries that want nuclear weapons succeed in building them and others don't.... What happened with the failures, Libya and Iraq? A good deal of sporadic reading has long persuaded me that one way or the other both countries had or had acquired sufficient means to pursue a program-in the case of Libya there were financial resources and in the case of Iraq both financial and scientific resources. The Libyans started with almost nothing, but the oil boom enabled them to buy what they needed. Yet both countries had leaders-Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi-whose feelings about these weapons were ambivalent and always secondary to preserving the ideology of the regime. Now there is an excellent new book, Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons, by the Norwegian political scientist Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer, that is the most detailed study of these two programs that I have seen.
New York Review of Books
Show Less