Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, History

France's nuclear tests in the Sahara, conducted between 1960 and 1966, catalyzed a series of events that profoundly influenced global nuclear politics and the process of African decolonization. Set against the backdrop of the Algerian War, African decolonization, and Cold War competition, the atomic tests in the Sahara had far-reaching implications beyond the immediate scope of France's nuclear ambitions. This dissertation examines the relationship between France's nuclear tests, the unfolding decolonization in Africa, and the making of the global nuclear order. By situating the Sahara tests within the broader context of the end of colonial empires and the dawn of the nuclear age, it offers a fresh perspective on the factors that shaped nuclear decision-making in the post-World War II era. Divided into two parts with six chapters, this project's first part examines how decolonization affected nuclear politics, tracing the decline of the French colonial empire from the 1950s colonization of the Sahara to the establishment of nuclear infrastructure and Great Power nuclear diplomacy. The second part inquires the reverse dynamic, exploring how nuclear politics influenced the decolonization process and postcolonial countries in Africa. I argue that decolonization conditioned and shaped the initial conditions of nuclear politics at a global level, with France's Sahara tests serving as an exceptional event that catalyzed these profound impacts in both the Global North and the Global South. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources from multiple countries, including newly declassified documents from French, British, and U.S. archives, as well as materials from several African countries such as Nigeria, Zambia, Namibia, and Ghana, this research delves into the reactions and resistance of African states, non-state actors, transnational activist networks, and the international community to France's nuclear testing, revealing the web of interests and power dynamics that defi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: R. Joseph Parrott (Advisor); Alice Conklin (Committee Member); Christopher Otter (Committee Member) Subjects: African History; European History; History; International Relations; Science History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, History

The purpose of this study is to examine American nuclear policy toward the French and Chinese nuclear weapons programs between the years 1961 and 1976 in order to provide a comprehensive narrative utilizing two parallel case studies of bilateral American nuclear policies. This is accomplished by examining United States government documents obtained from the Foreign Relations of the United States series and the Cold War International History Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars according to a method of policy analysis based primarily on a six-step model developed by Garry D. Brewer and Peter deLeon. The thesis examines two case studies of bilateral nuclear policies between the United States and France and the People's Republic of China, characterizing the formation and enactment of each bilateral policy chronologically according to the six-step model in order to provide a fuller picture of the development of American nuclear policy during 1961-1976 than was possible for previous scholarship for which many of these documents remained unavailable. The study argues that US-Franco and US-Sino nuclear policies saw great changes between the Kennedy and Ford years. US officials explored using aid to the French nuclear weapons program to influence French foreign policy, but eventually severed US-Franco nuclear ties under the Johnson administration in response to Charles de Gaulle's increasing hostility toward the United States. Nixon officials reversed this policy and provided direct aid to de Gaulle's successors, eventually expanding aid under the Ford administration in order to shift French foreign policy in line with American interests. Conversely, American officials explored means to stop Chinese proliferation under Kennedy and Johnson, including preemptive American military action, but warmed to Chinese rapprochement by the end of the Johnson era. Nixon officials continued this rapprochement and unilaterally eased nuclear tensions by re (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Walter E. Grunden PhD (Advisor); Marc V. Simon PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; International Relations; Military History; Modern History; Political Science; Science History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History

Historians have only begun to grapple with the implications of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, the longest-running arms control negotiation in modern history. This dissertation breaks with the existing literature by examining the process from beginning to end, and placing an in-depth examination of SALT at the center of the narrative. In effect, SALT's structural constraints limited the progress that could actually be achieved in reducing arms. Rather than retreating from the process, the leaderships of both superpowers embraced it as a way to reassert their control over fractious domestic interests and restive polities, using foreign policy to effect a “domestic condominium” between them. Widespread discontent with the threat of nuclear annihilation prompted the superpowers to redirect SALT to enhance their control over their military and diplomatic apparatuses and insulate themselves from the political consequences of continued competition. Prolonged engagement with arms control issues introduced dynamic effects into nuclear policy in the United States and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union. Arms control considerations came to influence most areas of defense decision making, while the measure of stability SALT provided allowed the examination of new and potentially dangerous nuclear doctrines. Verification and compliance concerns by the United States prompted continuous reassessments of Soviet capabilities and intentions, while challenging their definitions of knowledge itself. This framework grew strained as the short and long-term interests of the superpowers began to diverge. The Reagan administration came to power promising to break this cycle, but could not find a way to operate constructively within the existing framework. The SALT process, broadly construed, reached its definitive end with the Soviet walkout from arms control talks in 1983.

Committee: Peter Hahn (Advisor); Robert McMahon (Advisor); Jennifer Siegel (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; International Relations; Military History

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2014, Leadership and Change

While the mention of common purpose is prevalent in leadership studies, there are few attempts to explore the relationship between common purpose and leadership. This study delves into the questions of if and how common purpose and leadership inform one another. How leaders adapt purpose and leadership approaches in response to evolving and turbulent conditions may foster the depth and sustainment of immediate and subsequent accomplishments. Through phenomenological research in the venue of nuclear weapons reduction, a common purpose that is both globally pervasive and imbued with a sense of urgency, the lived essence of those engaged in common purpose can be illustrated. Exploring the symbiosis of the nuclear weapons reduction common purpose and associated leadership may have theoretical implications or provide lessons that can be utilized within other common purpose settings. The electronic version of this dissertation is available through the OhioLink ETD Center at http://ohiolink.edu/etd

Committee: Philomena Essed Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Carolyn B. Kenny Ph.D. (Committee Member); Anne Perkins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Steve Chase Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Armed Forces; History; Psychology; Public Policy

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2012, Arts and Sciences: Political Science

Conventional explanations for a state's nuclear policy (acquisition or forbearance) may be found in traditional International Relations (IR) theories such as neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism and constructivism, amongst many others. Departing from these theories, especially hard realist theories, a new explanation for nuclear forbearance was propounded by T.V. Paul, based on the theory of “prudential realism.” In this modified soft realist version, nations under certain circumstances may prudently forego military capabilities that other states see as threatening (Paul, 2000). The circumstances as envisaged by Paul, relate to the level of conflict and co-operation and the level of politico-security interdependence in a given region. The theory thus differentiates itself from traditional hard realist theories and neoliberal institutionalist theories and offers a new explanation for a state's nuclear choice. This dissertation tests the theory of “prudential realism” through a comprehensive case study analysis by using the same variables and definitions as used in the theory. Five cases in this dissertation, drawn from different regions and contexts, proved to be useful tests of the theory with respect to its two key variables, namely level of conflict and politico-security interdependence. The case studies are new and have been rigorously researched to make a contribution to the existing literature. My question is directed towards understanding whether a) states do indeed behave prudently in exercising their nuclear choices and b) whether elevating a few variables (level of conflict & politico - security interdependence) to explain these choices is adequate to capture the correlates of nuclear preferences? In rigorously testing the theory, I hope to ascertain if, as the theory claims, nuclear weapons acquisition or forbearance by a non great power state is determined by its situational context and degree of politico-security interdependence with its key adversari (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dinshaw Mistry PhD (Committee Chair); Barbara Bardes PhD (Committee Member); Thomas Moore PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2003, Interdisciplinary : Interdisciplinary Studies

This dissertation explores a case study of nuclear weapons cleanup debate among the Department of Energy (DOE), environmental regulators, and a grassroots group by analyzing how their perspectives of nuclear cleanup and public participation diverge and converge over the course of sustained public participation. Past research suggests that disputes among various groups during the Cold War occurred partly because of an inability to overcome distinct ways of interpreting nuclear issues (Gusterson, 1996; Wertsch, 1987); however, the nature and forums for nuclear debate have changed in the post-Cold War era. The DOE engaged its neighboring communities in environmental remediation decisions at a time when institutional settings for public participation were shifting to forums based on dialogue and interaction over time (Keystone, 1993). At the Fernald nuclear weapons production site in Ohio, DOE officials, US and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulators, and area residents have engaged in a 19-year long public discussion regarding cleanup of the site. I examine public meetings, historical documents, and interviews spanning from 1984 to 2003 to trace the evolution of stakeholder perspectives on two key issues: nuclear weapons cleanup and public participation. Nuclear perspectives are characterized according to Wertsch's (1987) typology of forms of argumentation and ways of viewing connections among people within nuclear discourse. Public participation perspectives are characterized according to four perspectives on collective decision-making delineated in the competing values theory as the rational, empirical, political, and consensual perspectives (Reagan & Rohrbaugh, 1990). The study documents how these perspectives evolved across three time periods of public discussion and considers the role of the site-specific advisory board in facilitating dialogue and influence among stakeholder groups. A key finding was that Fernald stakeholders were able to develop converge (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Stephen P. Depoe (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2012, History (Arts and Sciences)

While countless historians have studied George Kennan and Paul Nitze, there has yet to be a comprehensive account of Kennan and Nitze's views on nuclear weapons throughout the Truman administration. Prior to the Soviet atomic test in 1949, Kennan and Nitze worked in tandem to preserve the U.S. atomic monopoly and to build a potent retaliatory nuclear arsenal. Kennan and Nitze also rejected the notion that the Truman administration could negotiate an international atomic energy agreement. In the wake of the Soviet detonation of an atomic bomb, however, Kennan and Nitze fundamentally disagreed over the bomb's role in U.S. security policies. Contrary to his previous analysis, Kennan advocated a strategy of minimal deterrence and a "declaratory policy" of non-American first use. Nitze, though, supported efforts to retain U.S. nuclear superiority and to initiate a massive buildup of U.S. conventional strength. Ultimately,this thesis demonstrates that Nitze, not Kennan, shaped the Truman administration's approach to U.S.-Soviet atomic energy negotiations, U.S. military strategy, and U.S. nuclear policy throughout the final years of Truman's presidency.

Committee: Pach Chester Dr. (Committee Chair); Ingo Trauschweizer Dr. (Committee Member); Paul Milazzo Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2012, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation examines how 1980s antinuclear activists utilized popular culture to criticize the Reagan administration's arms buildup. The 1970s and the era of detente marked a decade-long nadir for American antinuclear activism. Ronald Reagan's rise to the presidency in 1981 helped to usher in the "Second Cold War," a period of reignited Cold War animosities that rekindled atomic anxiety. As the arms race escalated, antinuclear activism surged. Alongside grassroots movements, such as the nuclear freeze campaign, a unique group of antinuclear activists--including publishers, authors, directors, musicians, scientists, and celebrities--challenged Reagan's military buildup in American mass media and popular culture. These activists included Fate of the Earth author Jonathan Schell, Day After director Nicholas Meyer, and "nuclear winter" scientific-spokesperson Carl Sagan. Through popular media, these figures spread criticisms of Reagan's Cold War initiatives, such as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, or "Star Wars") and the American nuclear missile deployment in Europe, to millions of Americans. Their efforts not only popularized the nuclear freeze campaign, but also influenced leaders in Australia, New Zealand, and in the Vatican, to question and even reject U.S. policies. In short, antinuclear cultural activism posed a serious threat to Reagan's Cold War initiatives. This dissertation utilizes research from presidential libraries, television news archives, and special collections, as well as cultural analysis and contemporary interviews, to reassert cultural activism's importance in Cold War history. In the 1980s, American mass media became a contested space in which the Reagan administration battled antinuclear cultural activists for American hearts and minds. Archival research reveals that this cultural activism alarmed the White House. Angered at antinuclear activists ability to permeate popular culture, the White House developed public affairs strategie (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chester Pach PhD (Advisor); Kevin Mattson PhD (Committee Member); Katherine Jellison PhD (Committee Member); Joseph Slade PhD (Committee Member); Allan Winkler PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2024, International and Comparative Politics

India's compliance to the United States' regional ambitions following the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan demonstrated a unique re-alignment that reversed India's historic defiance of international powers pursued since its independence. Instead of resisting the United States or seeking to disengage from the Afghan conflict, India provided aid to the new regime but did not extend military assistance because of limits set by the United States to appease Pakistan. India complied and increased cooperation with the United States despite the disadvantages this compliance presented. It will be argued that the structure of the international system enforcing US hegemony primarily influenced India's compliant Afghanistan policy from 2001 to 2016. First, as determined by the neoclassical model of a nation's foreign policy reacting to its relative place to the international structure, Indian foreign policy makers incrementally increased independent Afghanistan policies when US foreign policy indicated the desire to disengage from Afghanistan. Secondly, the United States increased military and nuclear cooperation with India that directly increased conventional capabilities with minimal conditions, enacting a historic model that previously encouraged India to increase compliance to international powers.

Committee: Pramod Kantha Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Laura Luehrmann Ph.D. (Committee Member); Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Modern History; Political Science

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: History

“Fernald and the Transformation of Environmental Activism” explores the grassroots environmental movement in Fernald, Ohio, that forced the Department of Energy (DOE) to transform its nuclear weapons production complex in the 1980s and 1990s. Built in the early 1950s, the Feed Materials Production Center, better known as Fernald, produced high purity uranium metals, or “feed materials,” for the federal government's plutonium production reactors in Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River, South Carolina. After a series of uranium leaks in 1984, the plant's closest neighbors organized as Fernald Residents for Environmental Safety and Health (FRESH) to hold the DOE accountable for contaminating the community. FRESH joined Fernald's unionized production workers in the Fernald Atomic Trades and Labor Council (FATLC) to challenge the DOE on grounds of environmental health and safety. This alliance attracted important political allies, including Ohio Senator John Glenn, whose efforts attracted national attention to Fernald. This dissertation argues that Fernald's locally focused, nationally connected, and multi-class movement of housewives and workers represents a new brand of environmental activism that protected nuclear weapons production workers and communities from the dangerous byproducts of the Cold War nuclear arms race.

Committee: David Stradling Ph.D. (Committee Member); Tracy Teslow Ph.D. (Committee Member); Drew Swanson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jason Krupar Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Political Science

Serving to preserve sovereignty, guarantee survival, and facilitate freedom of action, national security is arguably the lead objective of the state. In contrast, moral norms are commonly held international rules built on morality that, among other effects, can inhibit states in their pursuit of that primary goal. The question posed here, then, is why states would willingly make national-security sacrifices for moral-normative reasons. And yet they do. In numerous wars, militaries have chosen to forego attacks on tactically and operationally valuable targets to protect civilian lives. Additionally, in militarized conflicts from World War I to the Gulf War and beyond, political and military leaders have selected their weapons not only by military value but also by categorization, what some scholars call “taboos.” These moral norms of civilian immunity and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) taboos appear to play a substantial role in state conduct, as shown by the wide-ranging statements of policymakers and commanders and real-world practical constraint. However, experimental research indicates a striking willingness among the public to both violate civilian immunity and use weapons of mass destruction if they appear militarily effective. In prior studies where participants make ex ante and post hoc evaluations of norm-violating attacks on terrorist and conventional adversaries, large numbers of participants—in some cases, well over half—endorse civilian-killing nuclear strikes. This discrepancy in findings derives in part from incomplete specification of how moral norms exist and function at the decision-making level, where adherence to, or violation of, the moral norm is determined. This dissertation uses a dual-process theory of affect and cognition to describe decision-makers' moral-normative and national-security attitudes and their effects on wartime decision-making. Moral norms appear as affect-dominant attitudes, supported overwhelmingly by feelings an (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Advisor); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member); Alexander Wendt (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Military Studies; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1981, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2016, International and Comparative Politics

The literature proposes that bipolar systems and international systems with nuclear weapons will not have significant issues with alliance pathologies. But are alliance pathologies really insignificant in Bipolar Systems? The problem is that the literature only describes bipolar systems with nuclear weapons, so one cannot discern whether bipolarity or nuclear weapons alone are responsible for the insignificance of these alliance pathologies. So to solve this problem, this paper will examine a bipolar system in Classical Greece during the time of the Peloponnesian War to isolate any possible influence that nuclear weapons may have on alliance pathologies. This will be done using qualitative analysis in the form of an in-depth case study to focus on a total of six allies from the two superpowers – Athens and Sparta. The findings show that alliance pathologies significantly impact alliances in bipolar systems, which better clarifies the role between polarity, nuclear weapons, and alliance pathologies.

Committee: Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Bruce LaForse Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient Civilizations; Ancient History; Classical Studies; History; International Relations; Military History; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2014, History (Arts and Sciences)

The American military fully realized a third dimension of warfare in World War II that sparked a post-war discussion on the development and employment of air power. Officers of the Army Air Forces lobbied for an independent service devoted to this third dimension and agreed on basic principles for its application. By the time the Truman administration awarded the Air Force its autonomy, the strategic bombing mission had achieved primacy among its counterparts as well as a rising position in national defense planning. Because of the emphasis on the Air Force's Strategic Air Command, Tactical Air Command found itself in jeopardy of becoming an irrelevant organization in possession of technology and hardware that American defense planners would no longer deem necessary. In order to thwart irrelevancy Tactical Air Command underwent a modernization process to align it with national defense policy, but in the process, developed systems ill-suited to meet the challenges of limited, conventional war.

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, History

In the opening decades of the Cold War, West Germans faced a terrifying geo-strategic dilemma. Located on the frontlines of the Cold War between nuclear-armed superpowers, they were forced to consider how best to protect their nascent democracy from the possibility of a devastating war fought with weapons of mass destruction. For Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the right-of-center coalition that governed West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s, the answer to the country's dilemma was threefold. Close rapprochement with the West and a strong national military were combined with civil defense—protecting the country's civilian population and its societal and cultural institutions from the worst effects of a future war through a tripartite strategy of mass evacuation, protective shelters, and post-attack rescue and recovery units. This chronologically and topically-organized dissertation examines the origins, evolution, and demise of the West German civil defense program during the Cold War's opening decades. In doing so it presents three major arguments. First, as a result of unique historical and cultural influences West Germany's early-Cold War civil defense program exhibited remarkable conceptual continuity with its Weimar and National Socialist predecessors. Second, the program's political failure in the mid-1960s was due in large part to the inability of West German civil defense planners to make a clean break with the past. Finally, the Federal Republic's early-Cold War civil defense experience provides a new understanding of the process by which West Germans individually and collectively worked to create a new national identity in the post-1945 world. Specifically, in rejecting the highly-centralized program proposed by civil defense proponents West Germans individually and collectively rejected the sacrifice of their democracy called for by Adenauer and his allies. In doing so, the dissertation concludes, West Germans made a momentous decision about the fundamental (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Beyerchen (Advisor) Subjects: History, European

BA, Oberlin College, 1976, History

The purpose of this paper will be to arrive at some sort of understanding about the real importance of nuclear weapons in the hands of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., something which has not been done heretofore in as skilled a fashion as is possible. There are a number of reasons for this, some of which are worth looking into because of the impact they have had on the actual policies of the United States.

Committee: Bruce Tufts (Advisor) Subjects: American History; European History; History; Military History