"Nuclear Negotiations: History and Policy of Nuclear Weapons and Energy."
STS 6834
Fall 2009, Wednesday 7:00PM-9:45PM
This graduate seminar will address nuclear issues in both an historical and a
contemporary policy perspective. Students with interests in either military or civilian uses
of nuclear energy, and either history or policy of nuclear energy, are welcome to enroll.
This course provides an introduction to technical, political, economic, and managerial
aspects specific to the development of the nuclear complex – particularly, but not
exclusively, in the United States and the former Soviet Union. We will focus on military
as well as civilian applications of nuclear energy, and discuss problems of nuclear nonproliferation, international security, technology transfer, and regulation, among others.
The seminar is designed to enable students to engage meaningfully in recent discussions
about a “nuclear renaissance” and proposals for renewed international cooperation in
nuclear energy generation, as well as to understand what is at stake in debates about a
continued moratorium on nuclear testing and the value of nuclear deterrence to national
security. Readings will focus on national specifics, but will also emphasize multinational
collaboration and international agreements.
The instructors, Dr. Fitzpatrick (US Department of Energy) and Dr. Schmid (STS
Virginia Tech), are experts in the history and policy of nuclear weapons, and the Soviet
nuclear energy industry, respectively.
Books for fall 2009 STS graduate class, “Nuclear Negotiations” STS 6834
Instructors Schmid and Fitzpatrick
Brian Balogh, Chain Reaction: Expert Debate & Public Participation in American
Commercial Nuclear Power 1945-1975, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), ISBN:
052145736X (selected parts)
Richard L. Garwin and Georges Charpak, Megawatts and Megatons: The Future of
Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons, (University of Chicago, 2002) ISBN: 0226284271
Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after
World War II, (MIT Press, 2000), ISBN: 0262581965
Michael Krepon, Better Safe Than Sorry: the Ironies of Living with the Bomb, (Stanford
Security Studies, 2008) ISBN: 0804760632
Thomas C. Reed and Danny Stillman, The Nuclear Express: A Political History of the
Bomb and its Proliferation. Zenith Press: 2009. ISBN 0760335028
Joseph Rees, Hostages of Each Other: The Transformation of Nuclear Safety since Three
Mile Island, (University of Chicago Press, 1996), ISBN: 0226706885
Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate
Renewed, Second Edition, (W.W. Norton, 2002), ISBN: 0393977471
- Other readings will be available as pdf files on Blackboard