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Article ID: CBB587905950

Life after the Bomb: Nuclear Fear, Science, and Security Politics in Switzerland in the 1980s (2020)

Ziauddin, Silvia Berger (Author)
Marti, Sibylle (Author)

Cold War History
Volume: 20
Issue: 1
Pages: 95-113
Publication date: 2020
Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/14682745.2018.1536121

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Civil defense Technology and society Panic; fear Technology and war; technology and the military Cold War Emotions; passions Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons National security 20th century Switzerland

At the beginning of the 1980s, global aftermath studies prompted new perceptions of a nuclear war’s long-term effects on Planet Earth. Focusing on the Swiss ‘Weiterleben’ (‘to live on’) study, which translated these findings into a local context, the paper sheds light on the intertwined history of global politics, science, national security debates, and nuclear fear. It reveals important socio-political and epistemic shifts in the 1980s. Even in countries with comprehensive civil defence systems like Switzerland, the idea that a nuclear war was manageable came to an end; new forms of planning and types of scientific reasoning evolved that superseded ‘Cold War rationality’; and, finally, emotions became a crucial political factor.

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