JOHN MUELLER

ATOMIC OBSESSION:

NUCLEAR ALARMISM FROM HIROSHIMA TO AL-QAEDA

April 18, 2011

Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda, by John Mueller, published in November 2009 by Oxord University Press  (amazon.com is selling the book at a substantial discount.)

VIDEO AND AUDIO

Bloggingheads discussion of Atomic Obsession with Robert Farley, November 9, 2009 (40 min.) html

Book Forum presentation on Atomic Obsession, with comments by Michael Krepon and Jeffrey J. Lewis, Cato Institute, October 29, 2009 (80 min.)  link to video and podcast

TedxColumbus presentation on Atomic Obsession, October 20, 2009 (17 min.)  link to video

C-SPAN talk on Atomic Obsession, November 11, 2009 (59 min.) link to video

RELATED PUBLICATIONS, PAPERS, AND PRINT INTERVIEWS BY JOHN MUELLER

Review of Francis J. Gavin, "Same As It Ever Was: Nuclear Alarmism, Proliferation, and the Cold War," H-Diplo, March 18, 2010 pdf

"Think Again: Nuclear Weapons: President Obama's pledge to rid the world of atomic bombs is a waste of breath. But not for the reasons you might imagine," Foreign Policy, January-February 2010, pp. 38-44  html

"Exaggerating the alarm over a nuclear attack," washingtonpost.com, January 21, 2010 html

"Atomic Overreaction: The dangerously obsessive sway of worst-case fantasies about Iran," The Chronicle Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 10, 2010  html

"The Atomic Terrorist?" Nuclear Proliferation Update, Cato Institute, January 2010  pdf

"Calming Our Nuclear Jitters: An exaggerated fear of nuclear weapons has led to many wrongheaded policy decisions. A more sober assessment is needed," Issues in Science and Technology, Winter 2010, pp. 58‑66 html

"Nuclear Bunkum: Don't panic: bin Laden's WMD are mythical, too," American Conservative, January 2010, pp. 20‑21 html

"The Rise of Nuclear Alarmism: How we learned to start worrying and fear the bomb‑‑and why we don't have to," www.foreignpolicy.com, 23 October 2009  html

(with Karl Mueller), "The Rockets' Red Glare: Just what are 'weapons of mass destruction, anyway?' www.foreignpolicy.com, 7 July 2009 available on the web

"The Atomic Terrorist?" Research Paper for the International Commission on Nuclear Non‑Proliferation and Disarmament, 30 April 2009

Mueller on the Zazi Case: "This is it?" informed comment blog, November 4, 2009 html
    Comments on this piece by Bruce Schneier, November 9, 2009 html

No Nukes: Possibility or Pipe Dream? Abolition? Why? nytimes.com, June 7, 2009 html

(with Ian S. Lustick) "Israel's Fight-or-Flight Response" National Interest, November/December 2008, pp. 68-73 html

"Don't want Iran to have bomb? Don't threaten Iran about bomb" Omaha World-Herald, March 8, 2008

"Fearing fear itself" Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (review of William Langewiesche's Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor), November/December 2007, pp. 55-56   pdf

"Apocalypse Later" The National Interest, Nov./Dec. 2007, pp. 19-20 (response to letters by Graham Allison, Joseph Cirincione, and William C. Potter)

"Radioactive Hype" The National Interest, Sep./Oct. 2007, pp. 59-65  pdf pdf reformatted for easier reading

RELATED PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

Carle, Glenn R. Overstating Our Fears. Washington Post, 13 July 2008, B7 html

Chapman, Steve. Terrorists Can't Make the Big 1. Chicago Tribune, 7 February 2008 html

DeGroot, Gerard. Dismissing Doomsday (review of Atomic Obsession) Arms Control Today, November 2009 html

Easterbrook, Gregg. Term Limits: The Meaninglessness of "WMD." New Republic 7 October 2002

Gardner, Daniel. The Science of Fear. New York: Dutton, 2008

Gerges, Fawaz A. The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005

Ignatius, David. The Fading Jihadists. Washington Post  28 February 2008, p. A17  html

Jenkins, Brian M. Will Terrorists Go Nuclear? Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2008

Jervis, Robert. Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying. National Interest Nov/Dec 2009, pp. 73-84 (review of, and ruminations on, Atomic Obsession) html

Johnson, Robert H. Improbable Dangers: U.S. Conceptions of Threat in the Cold War and After. New York: St. Martin's, 1994 now available in a new high quality reprint edition

Levi, Michael A. On Nuclear Terrorism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007

Mack, Andrew. Human Security Brief 2007. Vancouver, BC:  Human Security Report Project, Simon Fraser University, 2008) pdf

McCandless, David. How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Kinda) (calculations about how many nukes it would takd to destroy the world), informationisbeautiful.net July 4, 2009 html

Richardson, Louise. What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat New York: Random House, 2006

Sageman, Marc. Leaderless Jihad. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007

Schoenfeld, Gabriel. Why Worry? (review of Atomic Obsession) Wall Street Journal 30 October 2009, p. A23

Seitz, Russell. Weaker Than We Think. American Conservative 6 December 2004 html

Stenersen, Anne. Al‑Qaida's Quest for Weapons of Mass Destruction: The History behind the Hype. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008.  Shorter and more accessible version: pdf

Walt, Stephen M. Tuesday morning book club (discussion of Atomic Obsession), foreignpolicy.com, 27 October 2009 html

Wirz, Christoph, and Emmanuel Egger. Use of nuclear and radiological weapons by terrorists? International Review of the Red Cross, September 2005 pdf