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Review
| The Struggle Against the Bomb: Toward Nuclear Abolition, Vol. III, by Lawrence S. Wittner. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003. 657 pp. $29.95, paper.
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| This is a masterful account of the late 1970s and 1980s global antinuclear-weapons movement. Prodigiously researched, with 105 pages of end notes and a 34 page bibliography, volume III offers a "cautionary tale" about concerned citizens who, through courage, intelligence, and determination, have struggled to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The author's analysis expands the traditional parameters of peace research through a transnational perspective. In his attempt to explain the effectiveness of the worldwide antinuclear-weapons campaign, Wittner conducted hundred of interviews with past government officials and nuclear disarmament leaders throughout the world, consulted numerous papers of activists and organizations, and examined countless memoirs, scholarly works, and government and organizational records. His two-decades-long research links the antinuclear movement to the traditional fields of diplomacy and national security policy while challenging the "Realist" school's presupposition that the system cannot be changed. His story, though tempered, reveals that the system has, indeed, been changed in some very telling ways. |
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Wittner's main thesis is that, despite reluctance on the part of Presidents Reagan and Bush I to slow down the arms race, the revival of the antinuclear movement after the Vietnam War led to a change in attitude both here and abroad. The rising tide of popular protest against Western powers and their decision to build and deploy more nuclear weapons, as well as the movement's challenge to similar policies in Communist-ruled Eastern Europe, resulted in a modification of hawkish positions on both sides. Ultimately, negotiations led to nuclear arms control and reduction agreements. Contrary to popular belief that the INF Treaty and the two START Treaties were directly attributable to Reagan's military buildup, Wittner insists that it was a vibrant and strong global antinuclear protest movement which transformed the thinking of both Republican presidents. The author is far more generous in heaping praise upon Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for his willingness to accept, as well as initiate, arms reduction. What is not clear, however, is how much of an effect the collapsing Soviet economy, based largely on military expenditures, impacted Gorbachev's thinking. |
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Students and teachers interested in learning more about efforts to promote global peace would be pleased to know that from 1982 to 1988, this movement became the largest grass roots citizens' movement in modern history. Wittner is at his best in describing how the movement created a compelling vision shared by the worldwide community. The movement's focus was not just on educating the elite, but all citizens. As a powerful social movement, the antinuclear campaign forced political leaders to undertake newer and bolder steps to reduce armaments. His primary plea is that the key to controlling nuclear weapons is through the mobilization of public opinion because citizen activism can and does work |
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Still, one should rightly ask, what has happened to the movement since the late 1980s? Has the end of the Cold War placed the movement in a state of suspended animation? Wittner's conclusion is somewhat sobering. Despite the gains made, the nuclear arms race continues. There remain some 30,000 nuclear weapons in existence. The war on global terrorism, North Korea's admission that it has nuclear capability, and Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear system for "peaceful" purposes has collectively resulted in the U.S. Senate's rejection of the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, President George W. Bush's dismissal of the Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty, and his desire to deploy new tactical nuclear weapons aimed at so-called "rogue" states. Consequently, and this is the very point of Wittner's monumental study, the perceived threats caused by nuclear weapons has strengthened, not diminished, the power of the nation-state. He asserts that the abolition of nuclear weapons does not require a "profound change in human behavior" (490). What needs hanging is a "vigilant citizenry" desirous of transforming "a pathological nation-state system" (490). Analogous to Crane Briton's "prodromal analysis," so brilliantly applied to the study of revolutions, Wittner implores political leaders and peace activists to recognize that "the creation of an international security system does not eliminate the need for pursuing a short-term strategy of fostering nuclear arms control and disarmament" (491). The book is most appropriate for advanced high school students, college students, and history instructors unfamiliar with the growing body of literature in the field of peace history. Because so little is done to teach about peace history on the secondary level, moreover, AP social studies teachers should share its findings with their students. |
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| Molloy College |
Charles F. Howlett |
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