Nukespeak, the official language of nuclear war, dehumanises and legitimates the arms race. With contributions from prominent journalists, academics and disarmament activists, 'Nukespeak' examines this crucial aspect of the nuclear debate. It also looks at examples of censorship, at journalistic practice, at the language itself, and what practical steps can be taken to redress the balance. A useful and controversial intervention in the current argument about whether Britain should relinquish the bomb. - from the back cover.

This book investigates the UK’s nuclear weapon policy, focusing in particular on how consecutive governments have managed to maintain the Trident weapon system. The question of why states maintain nuclear weapons typically receives short shrift: its security, of course. The international is a perilous place, and nuclear weapons represent the ultimate self-help device. This book seeks to unsettle this complacency by re-conceptualizing nuclear weapon-armed states as nuclear regimes of truth and refocusing on the processes through which governments produce and maintain country-specific discourses that enable their continued possession of nuclear weapons. Illustrating the value of studying nuclear regimes of truth, the book conducts a discourse analysis of the UK’s nuclear weapons policy between 1980 and 2010. In so doing, it documents the sheer imagination and discursive labour required to sustain the positive value of nuclear weapons within British politics, as well as providing grounds for optimism regarding the value of the recent treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Grounded in representation, agency, irony, cynicism, and related topics central to literary criticism, 'Knowing Nukes' emphasizes the pervasive paradoxes within nuclear discourse, advocating an approach that understands-and does not simply recoil from-the character of modern communication and the odd codes of strategic deterrence.