Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: Its

Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: Its History, Dismantlement, and Lessons for Today

In 1989, South Africa made the momentous decision to abandon its nuclear weapons, making it the first and still the only country that has produced nuclear weapons and given them up. Over thirty years, the apartheid regime had created a remarkably sophisticated capability to build nuclear weaponsâ€”both the nuclear warhead and advanced military systems to deliver them. The program was born in secret and remained so until its end. The government initially sought to dismantle it in secret. It hoped to avoid any negative international consequences of possessing nuclear weapons. The apartheid governmentâ€™s strategy did not work, because too many intelligence agencies knew about South Africaâ€™s nuclear weapons. Faced with intense pressure, South Africaâ€™s President F.W. de Klerk reversed course and adopted a policy of transparency in 1993. However, he decided to hide many of its aspects. Nonetheless, most of the remaining secrets emerged over the ensuing 25 years. This book provides the first comprehensive, technically-oriented look at South Africaâ€™s nuclear weapons program; how it grew, evolved, and ended. It also finds lessons for todayâ€™s proliferation cases.
Country USA
Manufacturer Institute for Science and International Security
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2016-09-20
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Institute for Science and International Security
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2016-09-20
Format	Kindle eBook

Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: Its History, Dismantlement, and Lessons for Today