Nuclear Issues

The world is closer to catastrophic, accidental nuclear war than it has been in decades. The successful regimes for arms control and nonproliferation, constructed by diplomats and scientists during the Cold War, have been undermined and deconstructed without serious efforts to replace them. The gravity of the nuclear threat is not widely recognized. Hundreds of nuclear missiles are ready for launch on a few minutes’ notice in accordance with the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD). Political leaders are increasingly willing to threaten to use nuclear weapons. Tactical nuclear weapons blur once-clear distinctions between atomic and conventional weapons, eroding the taboo against using nuclear weapons. Hypersonic missiles, autonomous weapons, and artificial intelligence make it easier to blunder into nuclear war. Nuclear issues require detailed understanding and respect for the interactions of science, technology, and world affairs. An annex to the chapter gives a brief introduction to nuclear science and technology.

Religious violence, gender and post-secular counterterrorism

This article argues that despite the framing of religion in the discipline and practice of International Relations (IR) as a force for good, or a cause of evil in the world, IR fails to treat religion on its own terms (as sui generis). With a few exceptions, the discipline has pigeonholed religion as a variable of IR, one that can be discussed as one might GDP, HIV, or numbers of nuclear missiles: measurable, with causality and essential properties. IR has also tended to treat religion as equivalent to features of global politics that it already recognizes—as an institution or community or ideology, for example—but in doing so, it misses intrinsic (and arguably unique) elements of religion. Drawing on feminist insights about how gender works in IR, namely that gender is a construct, performative and structural, this article argues a similar case for religion. A reframing of religion is applied to the case of Daesh (so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS) to show how our understanding of the organization changes when we view religion differently. The implications for counterterrorism policies if religion is viewed as more than a variable are explored in light of recent territorial and military losses for Daesh. The article therefore proposes a post-secular counterterrorism approach.

Wind of Change

What remains of the Soviet identity for those who grew up in an empire that started in the Baltic sea and ended in Kamchatka? What kind of post-Soviet cultural combos have been produced afterwards? Was it bizarre to listen to Led Zeppelin and Nirvana while being targeted with nuclear missiles from the West? In a retrospective way and engaging with the collective memory of his home country, Estonia, the author reflects on different narratives of Europeanisation, shame and peripherality and the way local people embodied them.

Helmut Schmidt, Euromissiles, and the Peace Movement

On February 1, 2019, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark Cold War treaty: the agreement between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to ban intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. One day after Trump's announcement, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would also withdraw from the treaty. Allegations of Russian violations in recent years have thus led to actions that threaten to return Europe to some of the most frightening days of the Cold War.

Un territoire de la dissuasion nucléaire: le plateau d’Albion

A territory for nuclear deterrence: high plains of Albion. This presentation studies the social silence surrounding recent French history, in the cold war period. The case study concerns social and political perceptions of the former strategic missile base located in Albion, active from 1970 to 1996, and then dismantled. The decision to create the missile base in this French heartland was taken by the Gaullist power in Paris in 1965, without considering local expectations. This arouse strong national and local conflicts, both political and cultural, in the 1960’s, between supporters of the militarization and its opponents. Nuclear missiles were not welcome by all: anxiety and new popular culturesuch as rumours about UFO’stestify for the entering in a new age. Was there a real patriotic consent to cold war? Resignation and fatalistic attitudes seem to have prevailed. Since the late 2000’s, i.e. twenty years after the demilitarization of Albion, some former servicemen still denounce the activities linked to nuclear missiles as responsible for radioactive contamination and persistent diseases. This history, not investigated nor written yet, should highlight the reluctant and ambivalent attitudes of the French society when entering nuclear age.