The New Nuclear Imperialism: Science, Diplomacy and Power in the British Empire

1960年，在回应法国在阿尔及利亚撒哈拉进行核试验的前景时，后殖民时代的加纳领导人夸梅·恩克鲁玛（Kwame Nkrumah）警告说，“新的核帝国主义”即将到来（Allman，2008; Hill，2018）。开采外国土地进行铀矿开采和核试验的遗留问题确保了恩克鲁玛的话的持续相关性，无论是在当代对“核新殖民主义”的指控中，还是在动员全球范围内的禁核条约运动中（Broinowski，2015）。这项研究探讨了英国对核能的追求是如何与帝国交织在一起的，以及这段历史如何被用来参与当前关于核秩序的辩论。在这样做的过程中，这项研究不仅关注帝国与核能之间的结构性联系--英国人用来采购铀或试验武器的资源和地点。它还关注帝国主义作为英国核计划运作的知识体系。在一个被认为是“科学帝国主义”的高点的时期，这项研究试图展示帝国知识如何影响关键决策和观点，包括在哪里开采和测试，谁来影响和参与这些过程，以及如何在国际政治中利用和合法化（Bennet和Hodge，2011）。英国的核计划为我们提供了一个了解帝国末期帝国对外交、生态和种族的思考的窗口。为了把握帝国晚期在核历史和政治中的作用，本项目从核技术的生产到潜在影响，从铀矿开采到与武器试验有关的赔偿案件，对核技术进行了研究。为了把握帝国主义作为一种独特的思考和行动模式，该项目还引用了超越国家档案和物理学家论文的方法论。例如，恢复神话和民间传说将有助于理解土著群体与其土地之间的关系，以及如何将在该土地上采矿和试验理解为具有“人道主义影响”。该项目以五个领域为基础，首先是在英国和法国的非殖民化和美国国际主义的背景下，对“核帝国主义”的含义及其形式进行理论化。它继续关注纳米比亚的奴隶制和全球铀贸易;围绕法国在阿尔及利亚的试验及其对核联盟和无核联盟的影响的外交策略;以及非科学，非西方的核时代观念对土著群体权利运动的重要性，如太平洋的基里巴斯。该项目的最后部分侧重于退伍军人和测试“受害者”对英国国防部的赔偿要求。它利用这些来更广泛地参与历史不公正的问题，特别是当它们出现在帝国史学和转向殖民主义的“赔偿”历史时。这些晚期帝国主义和核国家之间的历史联系也有助于解释当今核秩序所面临的挑战。为此，该项目将提高人们的认识，并与非政府组织一起揭示核帝国主义的历史，这些非政府组织是“人道主义倡议”的一部分，这是联合国国家和非国家行为者之间废除核武器的运动。该项目将考虑这些历史在2020年在联合国举行的不扩散条约审议大会（或RevCon）期间的政策辩论中的作用。它将与档案管理员、活动家、法律的和医学专家以及核退伍军人一起这样做。

Responding in 1960 to the prospect of French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara, the leader of postcolonial Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, forewarned of a 'new nuclear imperialism' (Allman, 2008; Hill, 2018). The exploitation of foreign lands for uranium mining and the legacies of nuclear testing has ensured the ongoing relevance of Nkrumah's words, both in contemporary charges of 'nuclear neo-colonialism' and in the mobilisation of a worldwide movement towards a nuclear ban treaty (Broinowski, 2015). This research explores how the pursuit of nuclear power by Britain was enmeshed in empire, as well as how this history can be used to engage with current debates about the nuclear order. In doing so, the research is concerned not only with the structural connection between empire and nuclear power - the resources and sites that the British used to procure uranium or test weapons. It is also concerned with imperialism as a knowledge system by which the British nuclear programme was operationalised. In a period regarded as the high point of 'scientific imperialism', this research seeks to show how imperial knowledge informed key decisions and perspectives on where to mine and test, who to affect and involve in these processes and how these could be harnessed and legitimised in international politics (Bennet and Hodge, 2011). The British nuclear programme thus provides a window into imperial thinking about diplomacy, ecology and race at the end of empire.In order to grasp the role of late imperialism in nuclear history and politics, this project considers nuclear technologies from their production to their potential effects, from the mining of uranium to compensation cases relating to the testing of weapons. In order to grasp imperialism as a distinctive mode of thinking about and acting in the world, the project also invokes methodologies that go beyond state archives and the papers of physicists. The retrieval of myths and folklore, for example, will help to comprehend the relationship between indigenous groups and their land, as well as how mining and testing on that land can be understood as having 'humanitarian impacts'. The project is grounded in five areas, starting with a theorisation of what 'nuclear imperialism' means - and what forms it took - in the context of British and French decolonisation and American internationalism. It goes on to focus on slavery and the global uranium trade in Namibia; diplomatic manoeuvrings around French tests in Algeria and their repercussions for nuclear and non-nuclear alliances; and the significance of non-scientific, non-western perceptions of the nuclear age for rights movements among indigenous groups such as the I-Kiribati in the Pacific. The final part of the project focuses on compensation claims against the British Ministry of Defence by veterans and 'victims' of tests. It uses these to engage more widely with issues of historical injustice, particularly as they have emerged in imperial historiography and the turn towards 'reparatory' histories of colonialism.These historical links between late imperialism and nuclearity also help to explain challenges to the nuclear order today. To this end, the project will raise awareness and shed light on histories of nuclear imperialism with NGOs that are part of the 'humanitarian initiative' - a movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons among state and non-state actors in the UN. The project will consider the role of these histories in policy debates during the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (or RevCon), which takes place at the UN in 2020. It will do so in tandem with archivists, campaigners, legal and medical specialists and nuclear veterans.