Abstract
The decision to develop nuclear weapons in South Africa came in 1974 under South African prime minister B.J. Vorster (1966–1978). It was driven by the anticipated withdrawal of Portugal from Mozambique and Angola, and the emerging Soviet and Cuban-backed African nationalist movements that were posing a threat to Pretoria’s apartheid policy.1 Pretoria, because of its unpopular system of apartheid, could not expect any extended nuclear deterrence. The first nuclear weapons, without fissile material, were assembled in 1977, a draft plan for the nuclear path was outlined in April 1978,2 and the decision to begin assembly came in October 1978. To that end, Prime Minister P.W. Botha (1978–1984) mandated a joint nuclear project between Armscor, the Defense Force and the Atomic Energy Board.3 The first nuclear device was ready in November 1978.4 The South African nuclear facilities used to design and build its six nuclear weapons at Advena were dual-purpose, well equipped, and had only 150 persons assigned to the project.5
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
J.D.L. Moore, South Africa and Nuclear Proliferation (London: The MacMillan Press LTD, 1987), 49
Waldo Stumpf, “South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Program,” Arms Control Today 25 (December 1995/January 1996), 3–8
Jeffrey T. Richelson, Spyingon the Bomb (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006), 283.
Hannes Steyn, Richardt van der Walt, and Jan van Loggerenberg, Armament and Disarmament: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Experience (Pretoria: Networks Publishers, 2003), 43.
Joseph Cirincione, Deadly Arsenals (Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2002), 360–361.
Thomas Graham, Common Sense on Weapons of Mass Destruction (Washington, D.C.: University of Washington Press, 2004), 16
Helen E. Purkitt, and Stephen F. Burgess, South Africa’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), 39
T.T. Poulose, Nuclear Proliferation and the Third World (New Delhi: ABC Publishing House, 1982), 164–166.
Purkitt and Burgess, 19; Peter Liberman, “The Rise and Fall of the South African Bomb,” International Security 26, no.2 (Fall 2001), 45–86
Peter Liberman, “Israel and the South African Bomb,” The Nonproliferation Review 11, no.2 (Summer 2004), 46–80
Moore, 67–68; James Adams, The Unnatural Alliance (New York: Quartet Books, 1984), 13–14.
Frank Barnaby, The Invisible Bomb: The Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd Publishers, 1989), 19
David Fisher, “South Africa,” in Mitchell Reiss and Robert S. Litwak, eds., Nuclear Proliferation After the Cold War (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1994), 207–230
Trita Parsi, Treacherous Alliance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 22.
Purkitt and Burgess, 52; William Burrows and Robert Windrem, Critical Mass (New York: Simon Schuster, 1994), 451.
Avner Cohen and Benjamin Frankel, “Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 43, no.2 (March 1987), 15–19
Zdenek Cervenka and Barbara Rogers, The Nuclear Axis (New York: Times Books, 1978), 160.
Congressional Quarterly, The Nuclear Age: Power, Proliferation, and the Arms Race (Washington: Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data, 1984), 140.
Shyam Bhatia, Nuclear Rivals in the Middle East (London: Routledge, 1988), 45.
Matthew Kroenig, “Exporting the Bomb: Why States Provide Sensitive Nuclear Assistance,” American Political Science Review 103, no.1 (February 2009), 113–133
Mohamed Shaker, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (London: Oceana, 1980), 835.
Janne Nolan and Albert Wheelon, “Ballistic Missile in the Third World,” in An Aspen Strategy Group Report, New Threats: Responding to the Proliferation of Nuclear, Chemical, and Delivery Capabilities in the Third World (Boston: The Aspen Strategy Group and University Press of America, 1990), 89–128
Leonard Spector, “Nuclear Delivery Systems in the Threshold States: Assessing the Role of Second-Tier Suppliers,” in William Potter, ed., International Nuclear Trade and Nonproliferation (Massachusetts: Lexington Books, 1990), 69–91
Dinshaw Mistry, “NATO Expansion, Round Two: Making Matters Worse,” Security Studies 11, no.3 (Spring 2002), 91–122
Wyn Bowen, The Politics of Ballistic Missile Proliferation (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000), 141.
Noelo Stott, “Motivations and Capabilities to Acquire Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical Weapons and Missiles: South Africa?,” in James Wirtz and Peter Lavoy, eds., Over the Horizon Proliferation Threats (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012), 68–84
Jack Caravelli, Beyond Sand and Oil (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2011), 25
Mitchell Reiss, Bridled Ambition (Washington: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1995), 11.
Waldo Stumpf, “South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Program,” Arms Control Today 25 (December 1995/January 1996), 3–8
James Doyle and Peter Engstrom, “The Utility of Nuclear Weapons: Tradeoffs and Opportunity Costs,” in Barry Schneider and William Dowdy, eds., Pulling Back from the Nuclear Brink (London: Frank Cass, 1998), 39–59
Michael Karpin, The Bomb in the Basement (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), 126.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2014 Julian Schofield
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schofield, J. (2014). Israel and South Africa — Nuclear Collaboration. In: Strategic Nuclear Sharing. Global Issues Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298454_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137298454_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-45236-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29845-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave Intern. Relations & Development CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)