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Nuclear proliferation international history project

September 2010

Picture 1: The Advena site near Pretoria, where the nuclear bombs were stored
Picture 1: The Advena site near Pretoria, where the nuclear bombs were stored
Picture 2: The safes in which the nuclear bombs were stored
Picture 2: The safes in which the nuclear bombs were stored

South Africa’s nuclear history represents a unique case in the history of international arms control measures, non–proliferation and non–alignment. During the apartheid years, South Africa developed 6.5 nuclear bombs as a deterrent to what the apartheid government perceived to be a communist threat to South Africa (in lieu of the presence of Cuban troops in Angola, supported by the former Soviet Union). In August 1989, then President FW de Klerk and a handful of advisors took an unprecedented decision to destroy the entire arsenal, before acceding to the Nuclear Non–proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1992. The dismantlement of the arsenal would be the beginning of a new era in South Africa’s nuclear history; after 1994, the post–apartheid government became a leader in promoting non–proliferation and disarmament.

Through the years, many questions have been raised as to the existence and extent of foreign collaboration vis–a–vis the nuclear weapons programme. In this regard, my research has so far focused in particular on nuclear relations between the United States, Britain and South Africa. In February 2010, I was invited to become a research partner in the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP), managed jointly by the Machiavelli Centre for Cold War Studies (CIMA) in Florence, Italy and the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars’ History and Public Policy Program (HAPP) in Washington, DC. The project seeks to create, for the first time, an international history of nuclear proliferation, non–proliferation, and counter–proliferation based on concrete evidence from archives around the world. The project has partner scholars from about ten countries who either possess nuclear weapons, or who had once sought to obtain a nuclear capability. Currently, we are awaiting feedback from the Carnegie Foundation on a submitted funding proposal amounting to several million dollars (the South African portion amounts to approximately US$280,000). The project also currently enjoys funding from the Woodrow Wilson Centre and the Italian Ministry of Education.

Anna–Mart van Wyk