Securing the nuclear nation

In 1946, in the Southern Urals, construction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics first plutonium plant fell to the GULAG-Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (NKVD). The chief officers in charge of the program – Lavrentii Beria, Sergei Kruglov, and Ivan Tkachenko – had been pivotal figures in the deportation and political and ethnic cleansing of territories retaken from Axis forces during WWII. These men were charged with building a nuclear weapons complex to defend the Soviet Union from the American nuclear monopoly. In part thanks to the criminalization and deportation of ethnic minorities, Gulag territories grew crowded with foreign nationals and ethnic minorities in the postwar years. The NKVD generals were appalled to find that masses of forced laborers employed at the plutonium construction site were members of enemy nations. Beria issued orders to cleanse the ranks of foreign enemies, but construction managers could not spare a single healthy body as they raced to complete their deadlines. To solve this problem, they created two zones: an interior, affluent zone for plutonium workers made up almost exclusively of Russians; and anterior zones of prisoners, soldiers, ex-cons, and local farmers, many of whom were non-Russian. The selective quality of Soviet “nuclearity” meant that many people who were exposed to the plant's secret plutonium disasters were ethnic minorities, people whose exposures went unrecorded or under-recorded because of their invisibility and low social value.     

Iran's nuclear programme and the west

Judged by the media reports and statements by US officials in recent months, the USA is seriously considering, or at least thinking about, taking military action against Iran, if it refuses to forgo its legal right to enrich uranium for its nuclear energy programme, which Washington claims is a cover for making nuclear weapons. Iran denies the allegation. The effects of such an attack on Iranian society and the political ramifications beyond Iran's borders are discussed and analysed here. The irony of the present dispute between the West and Iran is that, for three decades up to the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Europeans and Americans helped, in fact earnestly encouraged, Iran in the development of its nuclear programme. The article explains the reasons for the failure of talks between Iran and the European trio to resolve the issue. It argues that, even if the question of Iran's nuclear programme were resolved, the 27-year conflict between the two countries would be unlikely to end in the near future. For Washington the name of the game is ‘regime change’ in Iran, either through military means or through fomenting internal chaos, hoping for implosion. But considering the political and military difficulties that Washington is experiencing in Afghanistan and Iraq, achieving either of these options is highly problematic.     

化解伊朗核危机的最佳选择

2月4日,国际原子能机构通过了欧盟提交的决议草案,决定将伊朗核问题向联合国安理会报告.国际原子能机构总干事巴拉迪将于3月6日把该报告连同有关伊朗核问题的实施情况正式报告给联合国安理会.一石激起千重浪,有关各方反应非常强烈,谈判、制裁、动武软硬兼施,心理战和恐吓战越打越激烈.大多数国家都主张通过外交谈判途径,和平解决伊朗核问题.各国为此开展了频繁的外交活动,国际舆论也深表关注.     

Namibia and nuclear proliferation

This article offers a discussion of the probable effects of a Worldwide Patent System for developing countries. It draws upon insights from the ongoing processes in the World Intellectual Property Organization and elsewhere relevant for the global patent system and discusses these features from a developing country perspective. For scientifically advanced developing countries the effect in their most advanced and most global enterprises is potentially positive as they will benefit as much as other multinational companies. In areas of research and development where these most advanced developing countries do not possess a high level of technological capacity, a Worldwide Patent System is unlikely to create any benefits for them. For countries with the ability to copy and produce inventions made by others a Worldwide Patent System will have a negative effect as inventors will have little opportunity to utilise the system, whereas they will be bound by a larger number of exclusive rights narrowing down their space for innovation. For the least developed countries an additional problem arises: it might become even more difficult to import essential goods because patents will be in force in these countries even though there is no production of that product in the country.     

Coercive diplomacy by the EU: the Iranian nuclear weapons crisis

The European Union has been the main international actor trying to contain the Iranian nuclear programme. In 2003, for the first time ever, the EU-3 adopted a coercive diplomatic approach vis-à-vis Iran. The current article begins with an analysis of the concept of coercive diplomacy before applying it to the Iranian case. In so doing, the article aims to make an interim assessment of the European (EU-3) effort.     

American culpability: the Bush Administration and the Iranian nuclear impasse

Drawing on the memoirs of Hassan Rowhani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator (2003–2005) and newly elected president, this paper considers the impact of the Bush Administration's Iran policy on the internal politics of the Islamic Republic and the dynamics of its nuclear negotiation strategy. It argues that the administration had a detrimental effect on international nuclear negotiations with Iran and should be considered at least partially responsible for the current nuclear impasse. Identifying three key areas, it focuses on the administration's rejection of constructive engagement with the relatively moderate government of President Mohammad Khatami; the negative influence of the USA during Iran's nuclear negotiations with the EU3; and the administration's refusal to provide the Iranians with confidence-building incentives, or countenance unconditional nuclear talks, despite a policy change in Washington that was ostensibly multilateralist and gave the impression of directly engaging with the Iranians.     

伊朗核问题的症结与中国的立场

近两年来,伊朗与美欧在"伊核问题"上的斗争愈演愈烈,造成海湾地区阴云密布,局势空前紧张."伊核问题"现已成为重大的国际政治斗争的焦点问题,牵动着世界主要大国的互动关系,其发展趋势将直接对中东海湾地区安全局势的发展、世界和平与发展的走向产生重大影响.     

A look inside an emerging nuclear supplier. Advocacy coalitions and change in Argentine foreign nuclear policy

What light can foreign policy analysis (FPA) shed on how and when the balance of power between domestic coalitions in foreign nuclear policymaking changes and how these different balances directly affect policy outcomes? Drawing on interviews with scientists, technologists and career diplomats, this comprehensive examination of Argentine nuclear exports policy as public policy aims to depict when and how policies varied between 1976 and 2004, due to shifts in the balance amongst advocacy coalitions, albeit of incentives and constraints placed by international and institutional nuclear environments. The article provides a better account of how Argentine nuclear foreign policy changed under the influence of four competitive and contrasting advocacy coalitions: the pro-import substitution and protectionist coalition, the pro-technological autonomy and South-South trade coalition, the pro-business and commercial openness coalition and the antinuclear and pro-environment coalition.     

中苏核武器合作内幕

1958年7月31日至8月3日,苏联领导人赫鲁晓夫和国防部长马利诺夫斯基秘密访问了北京.中国提出,请苏联"老大哥"传授核技术.然而,从60年代初开始,两国关系逐渐紧张进而演变为公开对抗.1964年10月16日,中国依靠自己的力量成功地试爆了第一颗原子弹.俄罗斯汉学家通过查阅大量从未公开过的文献,揭开了当年中苏领导人之间鲜为人知的内幕.     

African agency and global orders: the demanding case of nuclear arms control

Abstract

How much agency do African states have to shape global orders? This study puts the global nuclear order under scrutiny to answer this question. It amounts to a demanding case. Arms control is something that global great powers take very seriously, and there is no weapons category that they take more seriously than nuclear weapons. My findings provide a nuanced picture. Although often outflanked and frustrated by nuclear weapon states, the nuclear order would look different without African actors exerting their agency. They successfully shaped background and foreground institutions constituting the global nuclear order by building advocacies for new institutions upon already existing ones, reaching out to state and non-state actors outside of Africa, and channelling communication through African states with authority in global fora. This study makes three contributions: First, it underlines the key finding of recent literature on African agency that African actors are more to be reckoned with than often assumed. Second, it provides novel evidence about the diplomatic mechanisms through which they come to make a difference. Third, it adds to our grasp of the constitution of global orders as well as the processes through which they come to be made, re-made and unmade more generally.     

International cooperation in locating and recovering stolen nuclear materials

Abstract

With the expansion of terrorist activities in the last fifteen years there has been increasing concern that groups might be able to steal nuclear materials and use nuclear weapons for terrorist purposes. The last fifteen years have also seen growing criminal activity in the nuclear domain including thefts of nuclear material, attacks on nuclear facilities, and threats against American cities, although these latter threats turned out to be hoaxes. Nuclear experts have stated that a relatively few technicians could fabricate a nuclear bomb. The principal impediment is access to nuclear material. Although terrorists usually would not be able to further their aims by threats of mass destruction, it is increasingly conceivable that some group might go for the nuclear jackpot. Congress has recently passed legislation designed to protect nuclear materials and to make nuclear thefts and threats subject to severe penalties. This legislation is geared into a recent U.N. convention providing for international cooperation on protecting nuclear materials for peaceful purposes and prosecuting nuclear crimes. Action still needs to be taken, however, to implement a 1982 Nunn Amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill which calls for the Secretary of Defense to make a study of the feasibility of a nuclear crisis control center for sharing information and monitoring nuclear incidents. The center would help contain such incidents and prevent them from escalating into an international crisis.     

The Temelín nuclear power plant and the European Union in Austrian–Czech relations

The Czech Republic's Temelín nuclear power plant provoked the worst relations between it and Austria. This article identifies novel, unexpected roles that the EU played in that dispute: mediator, framework-setting; absenteeism; foil; and belated enforcer. The EU ultimately altered the nature of the dispute and can be seen to have inadvertently defended a non-member state's interests against those of an existing member.     

A social impact assessment of the nuclear fuel services facility at west valley,New York

This paper sets forth a research methodology to evaluate the social impact of projects on people. The data and measurement techniques are drawn from a preliminary social impact assessment of the Nuclear Fuel Services facility in West Valley, New York. In addition to collecting socio-economic and demographic information on the region, a survey of West Valley area residents was conducted. Respondents were questioned about their level of awareness of the issues surrounding the plant, their knowledge about the issue sphere, the nature and level of awareness of the issues surrounding the plant, their knowledge about the issue sphere, the nature and level of their concern regarding the facility, and proposed policies to deal with the plant. A major finding is that residents living in the region are apprehensive about the health dangers that can result from radioactive contamination of the environment, and favor removal of the plant and restoration of the area. How the results of our study were incorporated into the policy making process is discussed at the conclusion of the paper.