South Africa's Weapons of Mass Destruction / Edition 1

by Helen E. Purkitt, Stephen F. Burgess

Overview

South Africa's Weapons of Mass Destruction offers an in-depth view of the secret development and voluntary disarmament of South Africa's nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons program, Project Coast. Helen E. Purkitt and Stephen F. Burgess explore how systems used for nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in South Africa were acquired and established beyond the gaze of international and domestic political actors. On the basis of archival evidence from Project Coast and their own extensive interviews with military and political officials, Purkitt and Burgess consider what motivates countries to acquire and build such powerful weaponry and examine when and how decisions are made to dismantle a military arsenal voluntarily. Questions such as how to destroy weapons safely and keep them from reappearing on international markets are considered along with comparative strategies for successful disarmament in other nation-states.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253217301
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	05/11/2005
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Helen E. Purkitt is Professor of Political Science at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Stephen F. Burgess is Associate Professor in the Department of Strategy and International Security at the U.S. Air War College and Associate Director of the U.S. Air Force Counterproliferation Center.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Ongoing Problem of South Africa's Unconventional Weapons
2. South Africa in a World of Proliferating Weapons
3. Origins and Evolution of Nuclear-Weapons Research and Development
4. Warheads, Missiles, and Nuclear-Deterrence Strategy
5. Project Coast and Its Origins
6. Dismantling the Nuclear-Weapons Program
7. The Rollback of Project Coast
8. Disarmament Trendsetter
9. Emerging Issues and Residual Concerns
Appendix: Policy Lessons from the South African Case
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

South Africa is the only country to have developed nuclear weapons and then voluntarily given them up. Purkitt and Burgess tell a comprehensive story of South Africa's nuclear program, from its inception, with inadvertent assistance from the U.S. "Swords into Plowshares" program, which provided the country access to nuclear technology in the 1950s, to the government's decision to close the program in the last years of apartheid. As apparently important in this decision as international pressure was opposition from within the South African military to a weapons capability with extremely high opportunity costs and few clear strategic benefits; military planners came to believe that a nuclear capability was coming at the expense of the modernization of the South African National Defense Force. Purkitt and Burgess also describe the rise and fall of South Africa's efforts to develop chemical weapons, a story that reveals the seamier side of the apartheid regime. Chillingly, they suggest that at least some Afrikaner leaders might some day contemplate using chemical weapons to maintain order in the increasingly unruly townships.

Foreign Affairs