ABSTRACT
The antinuclear movements that have evolved over the past 60 years all around the world have been based on both a principled and pragmatic rejection of weapons of mass destruction. When the Cold War ended, it was hoped that all of the worst anxieties of nuclear policymakers on both sides of the East-West divide would recede and energy could be devoted to very significant changes in military doctrines, armed force postures, and an immediate ending of the nuclear arms race. The contemporary politics of fear derives from generalized uncertainty as well as specific threats that are a direct consequence of the preemptive wars aimed at neutralizing Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction ambitions, promoting regime change in the Middle East, and countering specific terrorist ambitions. The antinuclear movement represented a global effort to deny the genocidal and suicidal capacity of nuclear weapons to any human being.
