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Nuclear Testing, the ‘New Pacific’ and French International Policy

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France and the South Pacific since 1940

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Abstract

No aspect of French activity in the South Pacific since the 1960s has been so controversial as France’s testing of nuclear devices in Polynesia. Critics argue that in carrying out these tests, France is poisoning the Pacific Ocean and its people and dangerously militarising the region. Defenders of the testing counter that it poses no health or environmental risks and that it is necessary for France to preserve its national defence, of which the nuclear force is an integral part. In either case, the need to test nuclear devices has often been advanced as the primary reason that France must maintain its sovereign presence in Oceania. Still other observers point out the economic and social effects the testing has wrought on French Polynesia, for better or worse, and the dislocation that might result should France discontinue the tests.

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Notes and References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Australia

    Robert Aldrich (Associate Professor of Economic History)

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  1. Robert Aldrich
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© 1993 Robert Aldrich

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Aldrich, R. (1993). Nuclear Testing, the ‘New Pacific’ and French International Policy. In: France and the South Pacific since 1940. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10828-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-10828-2_9

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-10830-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-10828-2

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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