Achieving Nuclear Ambitions: Scientists, Politicians, and Proliferation

Jacques E. C. Hymans

Feb 2012 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Despite the global spread of nuclear hardware and knowledge, at least half of the nuclear weapons projects launched since 1970 have definitively failed, and even the successful projects have generally needed far more time than expected. To explain this puzzling slowdown in proliferation, Jacques E. C. Hymans focuses on the relations between politicians and scientific and technical workers in developing countries. By undermining the workers' spirit of professionalism, developing country rulers unintentionally thwart their own nuclear ambitions. Combining rich theoretical analysis, in-depth historical case studies of Iraq, China, Yugoslavia and Argentina and insightful analyses of current-day proliferant states, Achieving Nuclear Ambitions develops a powerful new perspective that effectively counters the widespread fears of a coming cascade of new nuclear powers.

About the author

Jacques E. C. Hymans is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Southern California. An expert on the politics of nuclear proliferation, he has published two single-authored books with Cambridge University Press, and numerous articles in peer-reviewed academic journals. Hymans received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.