The primary focus of this paper is the impact of key South African leaders on the successful developments and subsequent rollbacks of South Africa's nuclear weapons capability. It highlights the key milestones in the development of South Africa's nuclear weapon capability. It also relates how different groups within South Africa (scientists, politicians, military and technocrats) interacted to successfully produce South Africa's nuclear deterrent. It emphasizes the pivotal influence of the senior political leadership to pursue nuclear rollback given the disadvantages of its nuclear means to achieve vital national interests. The conclusions drawn from flu's effort are the South African nuclear program was an extreme response to its own identity Crisis. Nuclear weapons became a means to achieving a long term end of a closer affiliation with the West. A South Africa yearning to be identified as a Western nation and receive guarantees of its security rationalized the need for a nuclear deterrent. The deterrent was intended to draw in Western support to counter a feared total onslaught by Communist forces in the region. Two decades later, that same South Africa relinquished its nuclear deterrent and reformed its domestic policies to secure improved economic and political integration with the West.

The primary focus of this paper is the impact of key South African leaders on the successful developments and subsequent rollbacks of South Africa's nuclear weapons capability. It highlights the key milestones in the development of South Africa's nuclear weapon capability. It also relates how different groups within South Africa (scientists, politicians, military and technocrats) interacted to successfully produce South Africa's nuclear deterrent. It emphasizes the pivotal influence of the senior political leadership to pursue nuclear rollback given the disadvantages of its nuclear means to achieve vital national interests. The conclusions drawn from flu's effort are the South African nuclear program was an extreme response to its own identity Crisis. Nuclear weapons became a means to achieving a long term end of a closer affiliation with the West. A South Africa yearning to be identified as a Western nation and receive guarantees of its security rationalized the need for a nuclear deterrent. The deterrent was intended to draw in Western support to counter a feared total onslaught by Communist forces in the region. Two decades later, that same South Africa relinquished its nuclear deterrent and reformed its domestic policies to secure improved economic and political integration with the West.

South Africa was the first nation in the world to renounce and destroy its top-secret nuclear weapons capability. Its government also eliminated the ability to produce and deliver these warheads. Because no one archived the official documentary evidence of the program, various writers and scholars, as well as the public at large, have been left to speculate-and forget-the activities that consumed billions of rands and years of dedication. Based on facts and first-hand perspectives, Armament and Disarmament offers intimate views from three participants in the nuclear weapons program. A larger picture emerges through their recollections, fulfilling the role of essential perspectives and documentation where official records no longer exist. Out of secrecy and a need-to-know philosophy, many involved in the program, both wittingly and unwittingly, were never briefed as to how their particular endeavors fit into the bigger scheme. Armament and Disarmament sheds light on the complexity of events surrounding the South African nuclear weapons program and brings tribute to the ingenuity and dedication of all those involved.

South Africa was the first nation in the world to renounce and destroy its top-secret nuclear weapons capability. Its government also eliminated the ability to produce and deliver these warheads. Because no one archived the official documentary evidence of the program, various writers and scholars, as well as the public at large, have been left to speculate-and forget-the activities that consumed billions of rands and years of dedication. Based on facts and first-hand perspectives, Nuclear Armament and Disarmament offers intimate views from three participants in the nuclear weapons program. A larger picture emerges through their recollections, fulfilling the role of essential perspectives and documentation where official records no longer exist. Out of secrecy and a need-to-know philosophy, many involved in the program, both wittingly and unwittingly, were never briefed as to how their particular endeavors fit into the bigger scheme. Nuclear Armament and Disarmament sheds light on the complexity of events surrounding the South African nuclear weapons program and brings tribute to the ingenuity and dedication of all those involved.

Contents: Research Problem and Assumptions; South Africa's Nuclear Capability; Utility for South African Nuclear Weapons; The Effect of South African Proliferation on Western Economic Interests; The Effect of South African Proliferation on Western Interests in Access to Strategic Materials; The Effect of South African Proliferation on Western Political Interests; The Effect of South African Proliferation on Western Military Interests; South African Proliferation and Western Security Interests in General. (fr).

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 weapons-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 government's strategy did not work, because too many intelligence agencies knew about South Africa's nuclear weapons. Faced with intense pressure, South Africa'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. Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program draws on previously secret information to provide the first comprehensive, technically-oriented look at South Africa's nuclear weapons program; how it grew, evolved, and ended. It also finds lessons for today's nuclear proliferation cases.

A comprehensive history of the development and dismantling of South Africa's weapons of mass destruction program.

Prior to the Six-Day War, Israel was a darling of the international left, vocally opposed to apartheid and devoted to building alliances with black leaders in newly independent African nations. South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II. But after Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, a covert—and lucrative—military relationship blossomed between these seemingly unlikely allies. Based on extensive archival research and exclusive interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, The Unspoken Alliance tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and startling secrets.