12/2/2023 0 Comments Atom bomb“Hedging is very prominent across countries, including Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran,” Narang says. And “technical hedgers,” including Argentina and Brazil, have technological pieces in place for nuclear program but have not weaponized those capabilities. but still decided not to pursue weapons acquisition. “Hard hedgers,” such as Sweden or Switzerland, are not as close to the U.S. Japan and Germany are “insurance hedgers,” wary of American abandonment. “Seeking the Bomb” actually details three subcategories of hedging. support waver, those countries might be more likely to pursue their own programs. allies who are not eager to make themselves targets for nuclear-armed states, and instead work with the U.S. Then there are “hedgers,” the countries that have potential to develop nuclear weapons but hold off doing so, because of geopolitical considerations or a lack of domestic political support. The “sprinters,” the simplest category to understand, consist of the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, China, and India - big countries that could develop nuclear weapons independently, and did. Narang’s book puts all of them into four categories: countries he labels “sprinters,” “hedgers,” those benefitting from “sheltered pursuit,” and “hiders.” “No one had asked how states pursue nuclear weapons, and examined the different ways they have to deal with nonproliferation, their own resource constraints, domestic politics, and states trying to stop them,” Narang says.Īt least 29 countries have made efforts to become nuclear 19 have specifically tried to develop nuclear bombs, and 10 have succeeded. But Narang’s book centers the question of how, not why, countries seek to become nuclear-equipped. In recent decades, scholarship has usually focused on why countries acquire nuclear weapons - with the leading answers being security, prestige, and domestic political dynamics. ![]() “There is a growing likelihood that the United States will have to confront proliferation attempts from not just foes but friends and frenemies as well,” Narang writes in the book. In it, he develops a comprehensive typology of nuclear programs around the world examines why countries take different routes to nuclear development and outlines the policy implications. Narang has detailed these differences in a new book, “Seeking the Bomb,” published today by Princeton University Press. and the Soviet Union are really the only ones who had Manhattan projects, and the rest of the nuclear weapons powers look different.” “We think of proliferators as a stylized Manhattan Project,” says Narang, the Frank Stanton professor of Nucear Security and Political Science at MIT. But that paradigm applies to almost no other country. and Soviet Union did during and after World War II - a swift race culminating in the rapid buildup of arsenals, leaving little room for intervention. Narang believes that too often, we imagine that all countries pursue nuclear weapons the way the U.S. It changes how we think about managing them. “It changes how we think about stopping them. “There’s meaningful variation in how states have thought about pursuing nuclear weapons,” says says Vipin Narang, an MIT political scientist and expert on nuclear strategy. Recognizing these different paths to proliferation is an essential part of arms control: Grasping how one country is pursuing nuclear weapons can help other countries constrain that pursuit. And many wealthy countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, have chosen not to pursue weapons programs. Three other countries - Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea - have developed nuclear weapons while being supported by larger allies. A half-dozen countries with more economic and political clout than South Africa have built weapons on their own timetables. Other countries have gone nuclear in other ways. To this day, South Africa remains the only country to have pulled off that exact trick. ![]() For the first time, a country outside of the elite world powers had obtained nuclear capabilities while keeping matters a secret from almost everyone else. In 1993, South Africa announced to a largely surprised world that it had built nuclear weapons in the 1980s, before dismantling its arsenal.
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