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14 - The European Nuclear Dimension: From Cold War to Post-Cold War

from Global Challenges: International Politics, the Planet and the Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2023

By
Leopoldo Nuti
Edited by
Mathieu Segers  and
Steven Van Hecke
Mathieu Segers
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
Steven Van Hecke
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
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Summary

Studying the relationship between the process of European integration and nuclear energy means coming to grips with two of the central issues of the international system that emerged from the Second World War. Ever since the fateful dropping of two nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, one of the key questions of international politics has been whether the power of the atom is compatible with a world of nation states or whether its immense destructiveness needs a radical rethinking of the international system and the creation of some form of supranational framework to manage it. But is the atom really shareable, or – as General de Gaulle supposedly said – le nucléaire ne se partage pas? Such a question is obviously linked to the second issue, namely what can be achieved by the experiment of European integration. How far can it go? How much of their traditional powers are European nation states willing to abandon, and how far are they willing to go in sharing some of their most jealously guarded national secrets and prerogatives? Can Europe truly share the management of nuclear energy, in all its scientific, civilian and military applications? And if so, to what purpose? Is the ultimate goal of European integration the restoration of a Europe puissance or something else?

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the European Union , pp. 366 - 392
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Recommended Reading

Daviet, J.-P. Eurodif: Histoire de l’enrichissement de l’uranium, 1973–1993 (Antwerp, Fonds Mercator, 1993).Google Scholar
Hermann, A., Belloni, L., Mersits, U., Pestre, D. and Krige, J.. History of CERN, vol. i: Launching the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Amsterdam, North Holland, 1987).Google Scholar
Kehoe, R. B. The Enriching Troika: A History of Urenco to the Year 2000 (Marlow, Urenco, 2002).Google Scholar
Krige, J. Sharing Knowledge, Shaping Europe: US Technological Collaboration and Nonproliferation (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2016).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mallard, G. Fallout: Nuclear Diplomacy in an Age of Global Fracture (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2014).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, H. European Non-proliferation Policy, 1988–1992 (Lausanne, Peter Lang, 1999).Google Scholar
Pirotte, O., P. Girerd, P. Marsal, S. Morson, , Trente ans d’expérience Euratom: La naissance d’une Europe nucléaire (Brussels, Bruylant, 1988).Google Scholar
Skogmar, G. The United States and the Nuclear Dimension of European Integration (New York,NY, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Södersten, A. Euratom at the Crossroads (Northampton, Edward Elgar, 2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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