The Wretched Atom: America's Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology by Jacob Darwin Hamblin (review)

Jacob Hamblin explores the checkered histories of peaceful nuclear technologies in his latest book, The Wretched Atom. He brings attention to the often-dubious efforts by the United States, its allies, competitors, and even international agencies like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to promote peaceful uses of atomic energy. Hamblin presents his narrative within the context of the Cold War collapse of colonialism, the rise of neocolonialism, and challenges to Western racism. He frames his argument along the lines of a decades-spanning confrontation between Western nations who possess nuclear technologies and non-Western states who own desirable natural resources, while coveting the atom.

Hamblin divides his book into three sections, each with two to three chapters. The first part, Atomic Promises, examines the immediate postwar period and the numerous civilian potential uses of the atom that blossomed worldwide. Hamblin introduces the dichotomy that develops between nations like the United States having atomic technologies, and countries possessing needed mineral resources such as uranium. He flips the "haves" and "have-nots" relationship, wherein emerging nations own desirable minerals and Western states do not, but want them. America makes multiple attempts to secure these coveted supplies with promises that loyal regimes can access nuclear information in the near future.

The second section, Atomic Propaganda, dives into the consequences of these promises in the 1950s and 1960s. Hamblin effectively demonstrates the limitations of superpower influence, as the United States, through several administrations, faces increased skepticism from African and Asian nations. These chapters trace the rise and fall of America's "Atoms for Peace" rhetoric, along with presidential aspirations that technological advancements and economic growth might offset emerging world criticisms. Hamblin points out that U.S. presidents feared the language of race, colonialism, and neocolonialism used by African and Asian critics. He presents multiple case studies of non-Western states, India, Japan, and Ghana, attempting to adopt nuclear energy for both symbolic and applied purposes at this time. Hamblin examines the establishment of the IAEA and the multiple functions it either assigned or acquired through bureaucratic maneuvering. The international body also served as a means for pariah regimes, like apartheid South Africa, to gain/retain access to atomic knowledge.

Hamblin broadens his analysis in the book's final section, Atomic Prohibition. The successful testing of nuclear devices by China and then India flagged a major change according to Hamblin. Non-European nations achieved nuclear armament despite the United States' efforts to prevent it, even though some American allies profited from the sale of such technologies. America's diminishing influence over the control of oil in the Middle East coincided with these non-Western nuclear achievements. Hamblin argues that nonproliferation politics and the promises of peaceful atomic energy became intertwined as U.S. presidents tried to project global power in the waning years of the Cold War. The IAEA morphed from a technical advisory agency promoting the peaceful atom into the primary international nonproliferation investigative organization by the end of the century.

Past histories examining America's Atoms for Peace campaign focus either on the politics within presidential administrations or specific international case studies. Hamblin incorporates both but also considers the implementation of key international decisions. When atomic energy was actually deployed, it was rarely peaceful and had far-reaching consequences, including geo-political struggles, heightening tensions over colonialism and decolonization, and increasing debates on racism. Hamblin's broad sweeping narrative offers an engaging study of the sustained attempts to promote nuclear technologies, even though such actions made the world less safe.

Hamblin's analysis sidelines some topics due to the scale and timespan he studied. While he discusses Pakistan's interest in nuclear energy and hidden agenda to acquire the bomb, Hamblin only implicitly hints at the intelligence failures by the United States and the international community that allowed Pakistan to move forward. North Korea's acquisition of nuclear technologies also remains muted in Hamblin's book. The...