Book Review - The Atomic Bazaar, by William Langewiesche

Released this week. 179 pages.

The Atomic Bazaar (The Rise of the Nuclear Poor) is a study of the method and probability of the proliferation of nuclear weapon capability to developing nations and rogue terrorist groups. Containing such proliferation is the central goal of American defense and foreign policy, but is at the same time almost impossible to stop because of institutional and cultural barriers.

The author begins with an intimate description of the US nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those bombings set the stage for geopolitics for the remainder of human history. Every nation on earth aspires to either possess or have the direct access (via treaty) to the protection of such firepower. He then moves to report on the status of nuclear holdings in Russia, which is widely acknowledged to be the most loosely guarded supply of nuclear weaponry and fissile material on earth. Fissile material, or enriched uranium, is the single most difficult piece of the puzzle for anyone seeking to build an atomic bomb. It is difficult to enrich and nearly impossible to obtain or transport. He studies the possibility and potential method of stealing and transporting such materials out of a Russian facility in facscinating detail.

Langewiesche describes the US efforts to assist Russia and other nuclear contries in protecting their supplies, and acknowledges that there are institutional limitations to such protections without letting the government entirely off the hook. He then spends the remainder of the book telling the tale of AQ Khan, a Pakistani scientist, and the sucess of the Pakistani nuclear program and its aborted attempt at exporting the program to other Muslim nations. The point of the story is to demonstrate the ease at which such a program can be developed and to shine a light on the primary cog in the distribution of nuclear weapon technology to poor and developing nations.

The book is relatively easy to read, as Langewiesche can tend to be extremely technical and overly detailed. Here these tendencies are tightly reined in and the book's narrative is conducive to (again, relatively) leisurely reading. He stays almost entirely away from any political point of view, although the end of the book does point out some unavoidable inconsistencies in the US's treatment and relations with Pakistan.

For anyone wishing to take stock of the state of nuclear proliferation in the world, this book is highly recommended.