Abstract
This chapter reviews the literature on the contextualization of British and South African nuclear politics. It defines Britain’s strategy and analyzes works on British interests relevant to understanding the major themes in South African nuclear politics. This chapter also evaluates the body of literature on the triggers of nuclear proliferation. Focusing on the key factors extracted from the literature survey, this chapter provides answers to the question on the extent of study and research in British and South Africa’s nuclear history, politics, and relations.
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Notes
- 1.
Frederik Willem de Klerk (born 18 March 1936) was the seventh and last State President of apartheid era South Africa, serving from September 1989 to May 1994. De Klerk was also leader of the National Party (which later became the New National Party) from February 1989 to September 1997. De Klerk is best known for engineering the end of apartheid, South Africa’s racial segregation policy, and supporting the transformation of South Africa into a multiracial democracy by entering into the negotiations that resulted in all citizens, including the country’s black majority, having equal voting and other rights. He won the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize in 1991, the Prince of Asturias Award in 1992, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with Nelson Mandela for his role in ending of apartheid. Importantly, he initiated the roll back of the South African nuclear weapons program from 1989.
- 2.
Project Coast was a top secret chemical and biological weapons (CBW) program instituted by the South African government during the apartheid era. It succeeded the limited postwar CBW program which mainly produced the lethal agents CX powder and mustard gas, as well as nonlethal tear gas for riot control purposes. Project Coast was headed by Wouter Basson, a cardiologist who was the personal physician of the then South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha.
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Asuelime, L.E., Adekoye, R.A. (2016). British–South African Nuclear Politics: A Review. In: Nuclear Proliferation in South Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33373-1_3
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