How have the weapons of the nuclear age changed the rules of international politics? Can co-operation replace coercion as an instrument of security? This book compares the biographies of four dissident intellectuals who grappled with these questions throughout their careers - Louise Weiss, Leo Szilard, E.P. Thompson, and Danilo Dolci. Though they shared a revulsion for the "balance of terror," they possessed sharply divergent visions of a post-Cold War peace, from the Gandhi-like non-violence of Dolci to Szilard's relentless quest for US-Soviet joint diplomacy. Weiss, a French journalist and realpolitiker, believed that a united European military power would break the Cold War impasse; Szilard, a physicist and father of the atomic bomb, pressed for co-operative diplomacy between the superpowers; Thompson, a British historian, mobilized millions in the grassroots campaign for European Nuclear Disarmament; and Dolci, an Italian poet, experimented with conflict resolution through education and non-violence. By comparing the ideals, successes, and failures of these activists, this book illustrates the problematic boundary between "realism" and utopianism" in the nuclear age.

Book Information
ISBN 9780226044217
Author Michael Bess
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 539g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 16mm * 2mm