Our own worst enemy? : institutional interests and the proliferation of nuclear weapons expertise / Sharon K. Weiner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weiner, Sharon K., 1963-

Series:

Belfer Center studies in international security

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear nonproliferation.

Nuclear nonproliferation--United States.

Expertise--Political aspects--United States.

Expertise.

Expertise--Political aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

xiii, 358 pages : maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2011]

Summary:

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many observers feared that terrorists and rogue states would obtain weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or knowledge about how to build them from the vast Soviet nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons complex. The United States launched a major effort to prevent former Soviet WMD experts, suddenly without salaries, from peddling their secrets. In Our Own Worst Enemy?, Sharon Weiner chronicles the design, implementation, and evolution of four U.S. programs that were central to this nonproliferation policy and assesses their successes and failures.

Weiner examines the parlous state of the former Soviet nuclear, biological, and chemi cal weapons complex, the contentious domestic political debate within the United States, and most critically, the institutional interests and dynamics of the Defense, State, and Energy dePartments, which were charged with preventing the spread of WMD expertise. She explains why-despite unprecedented cooperation between the former Cold War adversaries-U.S. nonproliferation programs did not succeed at redirecting or converting to civilian uses significant Parts of the former Soviet weapons complex. She shows how each of the U.S. government bureaucracies responsible for managing vital nonproliferation policies let its own organizational interests trump U.S. national security needs. Book jacket.

Contents:

Controlling the proliferation of nuclear knowledge : an introduction

The proliferation threat

The domestic political context of threat reduction

Early conversion efforts at the Defense Department

The science centers

Initiatives for proliferation prevention

The nuclear cities initiative

U.S. national security, institutional interests, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons expertise.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0262515881

9780262015653

026201565X

9780262515887

OCLC:

676725795

Publisher Number:

99946135819