ABOUT BOOK

"A Nuclear Refrain is a spatial fiction that critiques the ~policy of nuclear deterrence, the concept of Mutually Assured ~Destruction, and the UK’s decision to replace its Vanguard submarines, ~so-called Trident replacement. We challenge that decision via extending ~our geographical imaginations into the past, present, and future. Noting ~ the more usual economic, moral, and strategic objections to Trident and ~ its replacement, A Nuclear Refrain considers the issues from ~less familiar perspectives: the emotional and embodied, empire and the ~establishment, and the impact on democratic potentialities. ~Set against the authors’ ongoing participation in extensive public ~protests against the UK’s decision to replace Trident in 2016, A Nuclear Refrain ~ disrupts familiar academic and policy forms of writing. It is “an ~uncomfortable hybrid between academia and fiction,” intent on ~discomfiting the reader to spur the radical reimagining of a world ~profoundly shaped by the threat of nuclear weapons. Inspired by author ~and social critic Charles Dickens, this book draws on the form of A Christmas Carol. ~ Transported by “ghosts” of the nuclear past, present and future, a ~pro-Trident British policy maker, the Right Honourable Roger C. ~Bezeeneos, has his perceptions sorely challenged. But will Roger allow ~his feelings to influence his decision-making? Will he recognize the ~yearning for empire-lost that mobilizes the British establishment? And ~will he admit the limiting of political participation that a commitment ~to nuclear deterrence determines? It’s your call, Roger."