Atomic Anxiety in the New Nuclear Age

Since my first book – Unparalleled Catastrophe: Life and Death in the Third Nuclear Age – was published last September, it has received several positive reviews.

Upon publication it was the Arms Control Association’s Book of Note for October 2023, where Chris Rostampour commented that it:

‘makes the case for a critical approach to the study and understanding of nuclear weapons by drawing together a range of interdisciplinary scholarship. He argues that the current nuclear age is “shaped by our lived experience of nuclear culture” and thus must be studied as such.

Throughout the book, he analyzes his personal memoirs and other unique sources such as pop songs, tv shows, movies and social media posts in addition to official documents, statements, and news. The book depicts the intersection of nuclear weapons and societal problems such as militarism, racism, sexism, and colonialism. It also studies nuclear weapons in relation to climate change, global pandemics and the future of democracy.’

Former British Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen has provided an endorsement, saying that:

‘This is a timely and excellent book as President Putin lifts a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons and is facing pressure to develop Russia’s nuclear arsenal. This is one of the first books on the Third Nuclear Age and there will be many more.

It has additional merit that it is short and rightly concludes that it is not enough to say “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought”. Unless we return to meaningful nuclear negotiations between nuclear weapon states, there will be a war in which nuclear weapons are used.’

Meanwhile, over in the journal Medicine, Conflict and Survival, my book was reviewed by John Loretz who reviewed it alongside Unmaking the bomb: environmental cleanup and the politics of impossibility by Shannon Cram. John Loretz commented that:

‘Crilley thoughtfully examines new weapons technologies, deterrence policies that have expanded over time to apply to a wide range of military and security threats, many of them non-nuclear, and the ways in which massive spending on nuclear weapons systems have become entrenched in government budgets for the long term. These topics are frequently addressed by others.

What is fresh in Crilley’s writing is a critical approach that recognizes the ways in which nuclear weapons, the climate crisis, the Covid pandemic, institutional racism, the injustices built into the global economy, and the dangerous rise of authoritarianism are interconnected.’ 

In International Affairs – one of the most prominent International Relations journals in the world – Laura Rose Brown reviewed Unparalleled Catastrophe and said that:

‘This book is a valuable tool for students interested in nuclear weapons, particularly as Crilley takes care to outline the ideas and mainstream theories that have sustained nuclear weapons, such as arms control and Tannenwald’s ‘nuclear taboo’. The author introduces these concepts, while showing how an alternative critical feminist approach can allow us to deconstruct the assumptions underpinning these terms. This aligns with Crilley’s goal to instigate a shift and ultimately rethink the concept of security.

To this end, the book is also a useful tool for policy-makers and academics, to locate the study of nuclear weapons politics within the global politics of intersecting crises, from climate change and systemic racialized injustice to corruption and public health unpreparedness.

The book examines the COVID–19 pandemic, the re-emergence of populist leaders and the persistence of racial injustices to illustrate the gaping cracks in contemporary approaches to global crises. This way, Crilley convincingly shows the limits of the current militaristic approach to security.

The book serves both to give an urgent warning of the imminent ‘unparalleled catastrophe’ and to provide meaningful recommendations for how this endpoint can be avoided.’

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed my book so far, and if you’ve read it please let me know what you think.

I hope the book will soon come out in paperback at a much more affordable price, but to do so I have to sell a certain amount of hardback copies, so please recommend a copy to your university librarian here!