21801903 - NUCLEAR POWER IN THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM

The course aims to provide the student with the essential tools to understand the nuclear issue as an international problem. To this end, it is crucial to go deeper in the analysis of how the exploitation of atomic energy has evolved since the 1930s and how it has progressively acquired a decisive political dimension, due to the absolute value of the destructive capacity of its military use. Moreover, students will examine the effects of the technology evolution and the inevitable diffusion of the related knowledge from a political-international perspective and they will try to understand to what extent the nuclear issue has influenced the thinking of the political and military theorists.

Curriculum

teacher profile | teaching materials

Programme

The course consists of a first part - almost two thirds - of class lectures and a second part dedicated to a series of seminars. The lectures are aimed to offer students the necessary tools to understand the transformations that the availability of nuclear arsenals has produced in the international system since the beginning of the atomic age. The change in the concept of power, the change in diplomatic relations and international politics and the consequences for the stability/instability of the system as a whole will be highlighted. In the seminar part, the students, divided into small groups, will instead be called upon to study in depth some topics and to present the work they have done in front of their colleagues, so that the whole class can discuss the topic presented by each group of students.


Core Documentation

T. C. REED AND D. B. STILLMAN, THE NUCLEAR EXPRESS. A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOMB AND ITS PROLIFERATION, ZENITH PRESS, 2009

L. FREEDMAN, THE EVOLUTION OF NUCLEAR STRATEGY, THIRD EDITION, PALGRAVE, 2003. ONLY THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28

Students not attending classes should add to the above mentioned list also:

1) JACK CARAVELLI, "BEYOND SAND AND OIL. THE NUCLEAR MIDDLE EAST", PRAEGER, 2011

2) BOOKLET ON ARMS CONTROL AVAILABLE ON THE FACULTY WEBSITE

Texts in Italian for non-attending students - combined texts (alternative program):

– Giampaolo Valdevit, La guerra nucleare. Da Hiroshima alla difesa antimissile, Mursia, 2010

– Marilena Gala, Il paradosso nucleare. Il Limited Test Ban Treaty come primo passo verso la distensione, Polistampa, 2002 (if not available in bookshops or on the Internet, students can find this volume in the faculty library)

– Excerpts from: L’atomica. Scienza, cultura, politica, (a cura di) Emilia Fiandra e Leopoldo Nuti, Franco Angeli, 2014, the following groups of chapters as an alternative to each other (or one or the other group): Group I: p. 37 to p. 80 + pp. 95-141; Group II: p. 143 to p. 239.

– booklet available at the copyshop “Appunti” in via Chiabrera, 174, tel/fax: 0659605579



Reference Bibliography

No additional readings provided.

Type of delivery of the course

In-class lectures.

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory but highly recommended.

Type of evaluation

The students are requested to examine and discuss in class some of the most relevant documents for the development of the non-proliferation regime. They are also requested to present a brief research on one of the most relevant issues concerning the political inmplications of the last decades of development of nuclear technology.

teacher profile | teaching materials

Mutuazione: 21801903 IL POTERE NUCLEARE NEL SISTEMA INTERNAZIONALE in Relazioni internazionali LM-52 NESSUNA CANALIZZAZIONE GALA MARILENA

Programme

The course consists of a first part - almost two thirds - of class lectures and a second part dedicated to a series of seminars. The lectures are aimed to offer students the necessary tools to understand the transformations that the availability of nuclear arsenals has produced in the international system since the beginning of the atomic age. The change in the concept of power, the change in diplomatic relations and international politics and the consequences for the stability/instability of the system as a whole will be highlighted. In the seminar part, the students, divided into small groups, will instead be called upon to study in depth some topics and to present the work they have done in front of their colleagues, so that the whole class can discuss the topic presented by each group of students.


Core Documentation

T. C. REED AND D. B. STILLMAN, THE NUCLEAR EXPRESS. A POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BOMB AND ITS PROLIFERATION, ZENITH PRESS, 2009

L. FREEDMAN, THE EVOLUTION OF NUCLEAR STRATEGY, THIRD EDITION, PALGRAVE, 2003. ONLY THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28

Students not attending classes should add to the above mentioned list also:

1) JACK CARAVELLI, "BEYOND SAND AND OIL. THE NUCLEAR MIDDLE EAST", PRAEGER, 2011

2) BOOKLET ON ARMS CONTROL AVAILABLE ON THE FACULTY WEBSITE

Texts in Italian for non-attending students - combined texts (alternative program):

– Giampaolo Valdevit, La guerra nucleare. Da Hiroshima alla difesa antimissile, Mursia, 2010

– Marilena Gala, Il paradosso nucleare. Il Limited Test Ban Treaty come primo passo verso la distensione, Polistampa, 2002 (if not available in bookshops or on the Internet, students can find this volume in the faculty library)

– Excerpts from: L’atomica. Scienza, cultura, politica, (a cura di) Emilia Fiandra e Leopoldo Nuti, Franco Angeli, 2014, the following groups of chapters as an alternative to each other (or one or the other group): Group I: p. 37 to p. 80 + pp. 95-141; Group II: p. 143 to p. 239.

– booklet available at the copyshop “Appunti” in via Chiabrera, 174, tel/fax: 0659605579



Reference Bibliography

No additional readings provided.

Type of delivery of the course

In-class lectures.

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory but highly recommended.

Type of evaluation

The students are requested to examine and discuss in class some of the most relevant documents for the development of the non-proliferation regime. They are also requested to present a brief research on one of the most relevant issues concerning the political inmplications of the last decades of development of nuclear technology.