The Book Unparalleled catastrophe: Life and death in the Third Nuclear Age discusses the dawn of third Nuclear age, analyze the impact of recent events on international security and issues a warning about the world moving at a faster pace towards unparalleled catastrophe. Dr. Rhys Crilley provides a unique perspective in understanding the contemporary nuclear politics by highlighting the contribution of popular culture in shaping public opinion and ideas about nuclear weapons.
The book accentuates that although the discussion of nuclear ages suggest that events, ideas and policies in each age can be easily specified with time periods, the nuclear policies, technical development, strategy, public opinion and academic analysis have all evolved and bleed into each other making it difficult to distinguish easily. Therefore the transformations and continuations of earlier nuclear ages are important in understanding the contemporary nuclear age. Nuclear ages are socially constructed concepts as they become a reality due to perceptions and actions of social actors. These nuclear ages are not only evident in the state’s nuclear policy, but they are also reflected in the popular culture of the time. Author points to the recent songs about hypersonic missiles and the much awaited sequel of Top Gun among others in regard to how they transform public perception and influence nuclear politics.
This book’s insightful sources that are outside of the traditional focus set it apart from prior analyses of nuclear studies. Research on nuclear studies has always been surrounded around high politics involving examination of the elite level state competition, official policy documents, diplomacy, military security and development of new military technologies. Author challenges this traditional method of understanding politics on nuclear issues by emphasizing that even though this elite level analysis is important, it offers partial understanding. There is a need to understand how Third Nuclear Age manifests in and is made meaningful through sources outside the realm of high politics like popular culture, everyday experiences and social media memes.
The book investigates the causes of Third Nuclear Age by analyzing high politics such as collapse of arms control treaties and also examines the role of low politics like popular culture and everyday experiences in shaping ideas about nuclear weapons. Ideas related to nuclear weapons and threat perceptions have become common sense these days. Author aims to alter this common sense notion through opening up new perspectives on nuclear politics and adopts self-reflection and personal narrative technique.
The book answers why popular culture and everyday experiences are important in understanding Third Nuclear Age through several reasons. Firstly state policies are effective when they align with the cultural practices and daily lives of people it affects. Leaders and policy makers are influenced by their respective perceptions of the world and the role they have to play in it, so policies are made accordingly. Secondly people have not experienced issues like nuclear war but because of the synthetic experience provided by popular culture most of the population can imagine the aftermath of a nuclear war as it plays out in films, TV shows etc. Opinions and ideas are shaped by how they come to know about nuclear weapons through public sites such as media reports, social media, and television. Therefore popular culture plays a prominent role in shaping ideas about nuclear politics.
Dr. Rhys highlights the issue of how knowledge on nuclear weapons policies and crises is thirty years outdated because of the classified nature of nuclear weapons. This has significantly restricted public knowledge and complicates efforts to better analyze the threats and respond with effective strategic thinking. The data available on nuclear studies represents issues that are three decades old. Even though they are important to understand the third nuclear age, these are not sufficient for scholarly research on contemporary times.
The author criticizes the prioritization of military security by states, while endangering human security by lack of preparedness in other security threats like COVID 19 pandemic, racism, white supremacy, exploitation of indigenous communities, climate crisis and the rise of authoritarian populist leaders in Nuclear Weapon States. Military and nuclear weapon spending have reached record high. In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nuclear policies are once again being changed globally because of the increased entrenchment of nuclear weapons in security policies of state. While people are experiencing a heightened atomic anxiety, media and the popular culture are tackling the issue of nuclear weapons once again.
The book provides few solutions that could bring about the end of this third nuclear age and avert racing towards unparalleled catastrophe. State actors need to take substantive steps towards arms control agreements and nuclear disarmament instead of just making renewed commitments. State actors should work towards strengthening of nuclear taboo. Nuclear threats should not be made so often accompanied by the continued development and deployment of nuclear arsenals. Author highlights the need to rethink nuclear politics and to rethink security priorities that are misplaced due to narrow focus on military security. The books calls for action on adequate public global health measures, pandemic preparedness and resolving climate change crisis instead of just focusing on Cold War caveman mindset of military security. There is a need to democratize the nuclear politics as few people who are unfit to govern cannot be trusted to decide on the fate to the earth.
The construction of the third nuclear age rests on language and representations, and this book explores how nuclear weapons are understood by their illustration in a variety of contexts, from official policy documents to pop songs and social media memes. It explores the causes that define nuclear and security paradigms shift. Author examines how this change manifests in societies and how the transformations are impacting global nuclear landscape. The book provides recommendations on what can or should be done to avoid this upcoming catastrophe. The multidisciplinary approach of this book makes it an essential read for everyone seeking to understand and comprehend the contemporary nuclear politics.
