Columnists
Hugh Gusterson
The U.S. military's quest to weaponize culture
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Pentagon want to use a novel weapon in the country's war on terror--anthropologists.
The new nuclear abolitionists
The renewed call for a nuclear-weapon-free world is coming from an unlikely source--former policy elites.
The "public" discussion about the Energy Department's Complex Transformation
This week a cadre of activists gathered in Washington to articulate their concerns about the latest U.S. attempt to reorganize its nuclear weapons complex.
U.S. nuclear double standards
As seen from Pakistan, U.S. nuclear weapons policies present troubling trends; an exclusive interview with the irreverent Brig. Gen. Atta M. Iqhman.
A Pakistani view of U.S. nuclear weapons
Before the United States criticizes Pakistan and other countries about the security of their nuclear arsenals, Washington should make sure its safeguards system is foolproof.
Misadventures at the U.S. Energy Department
Getting into a public talk at the Energy Department has become a surreal exercise, which is worrisome considering all the notoriously mismanaged agency is charged to do.
Deconstructing HBO's Pu-239
Like its recent documentary White Light/Black Rain, HBO's latest original movie, Pu-239, provides a thought-provoking examination of the nuclear age.
The effect of U.S. nuclear testing on the Marshallese
Five decades after its final nuclear test in the Marshall Islands, Washington still refuses to appropriately compensate those harmed by the tests.
Determining the truth about U.S. missile defense
Washington is either misleading the public about the purpose of its European missile defense installations or uninformed about the program's capabilities. Whatever the case, productive dialogue suffers.
Still surviving Hiroshima
Even for those who lived through the first atomic bombings, it will always be August 1945.
Nuclear terrorism: The new day after
It's irrational to think that human beings would behave rationally in the hours and days after a nuclear terrorist attack.
Nuclear terrorism: Correcting the future
If we lose Washington, we better get our story straight. Otherwise, history will rewrite itself.
The New York Times's slanted North Korea coverage
You would never guess by reading the country's so-called paper of record, but Pyongyang actually has national security interests of its own.
The militarization of neuroscience
The U.S. military's interest in physics helped produce the Bomb. Now the Pentagon is mining neuroscience for a host of futuristic weapons.
Understanding the reliable replacement warhead
The U.S. weapons laboratories want to build a new, supposedly safer, nuclear warhead. But will it make the country safer?
A parent's quandary
When it comes to war and social issues, what do we tell the children?
Finding Article VI
How the anti-nuclear movement remembered the nuclear powers’ obligation to complete disarmament.
Profile
Hugh Gusterson
An anthropologist, Gusterson is a professor of anthropology and sociology at George Mason University. His expertise is in nuclear culture, international security, and the anthropology of science. He has conducted considerable fieldwork in the United States and Russia, where he studied the culture of nuclear weapon scientists and antinuclear activists. Two of his books encapsulate this work--Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War (University of California Press, 1996) and People of the Bomb: Portraits of America's Nuclear Complex (University of Minnesota Press, 2004). He also coedited Why America's Top Pundits Are Wrong (University of California Press, 2005); a sequel, The Insecure American, is in preparation. Previously, he taught in MIT's Program on Science, Technology, and Society.
Columnist Resources
Recent Work
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"Paranoid Potbellied Stalinist Gets Nuclear Weapons: How the U.S. Print Media Cover North Korea"
Nonproliferation Review (March 2008) -
"Anthropology and Militarism"
Annual Review of Anthropology (September 2007) -
"Taking the Reliable Replacement Warhead Personally"
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (July/August 2007 print edition) -
"The Auditors"
Boston Review (November/December 2005) -
"The Weakest Link? Academic Dissent in the War on Terrorism"
Dissent in Dangerous Times (University of Michigan Press, 2005)
Recommended Links
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Federation of American Scientists
Nonpartisan technical analysis on complex global issues that hinge on science and technology -
Iraq Slogger
Insights, scoops, and blunders about the Iraq War -
LANL: The Corporate Story
Anonymous weblog that provides an uncensored LANL forum -
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
U.S. nuclear weapons lab -
Los Alamos National Laboratory
U.S. nuclear weapons lab -
Military Anthropology Network
Online community that facilitates free and informed exchange between academics and practitioners on matters related to culture, anthropology, and the security sector -
Natural Resources Defense Council: Nuclear Weapons, Waste & Energy
NRDC's coverage of nuclear issues -
Network of Concerned Anthropologists
Independent, ad hoc network of anthropologists seeking to promote an ethical anthropology -
Nuke Test Films
Library of declassified U.S. nuclear test films -
Science Progress
A project of the Center for American Progress that seeks to improve science understanding among policy makers