Why read Inheriting the Bomb?

Book cover of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine

Book description

The collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed the specter of the largest wave of nuclear proliferation in history. Why did Ukraine ultimately choose the path of nuclear disarmament?

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left its nearly 30,000 nuclear weapons spread over the territories of four newly sovereign…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Inheriting the Bomb as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

James Graham Wilson

Author

I love this book because it tells the story of individuals working on a complicated and unprecedented problem. In December 1991, an independent Ukraine suddenly became the state with the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. What should its leaders do? Forever after, political scientists have debated a question in the abstract: “Should Ukraine keep its nukes”?

After Russia’s partial invasion in 2014 and full-out invasion in 2022, the question was, “Should Ukraine have kept its nukes?” And Budjeryn does a fantastic job demonstrating how the reality was far more complicated than that framing. It was a messy path to…

From James' list on The best books on how we reduce the risk of nuclear war: from the Cold War to the present.