The Atomic Bazaar: Dispatches from the Underground World of Nuclear Trafficking | 
| Author: William Langewiesche
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 361986
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0374531323
Dewey Decimal Number: 355.0217095491
EAN: 9780374531324
ASIN: 0374531323
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
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Product Description
In his shocking and revelatory new work, the celebrated journalist William Langewiesche investigates the burgeoning global threat of nuclear weapons production. This is the story of the inexorable drift of nuclear weapons technology from the hands of the rich into the hands of the poor. As more unstable and undeveloped nations find ways of acquiring the ultimate arms, the stakes of state-sponsored nuclear activity have soared to frightening heights. Even more disturbing is the likelihood of such weapons being manufactured and deployed by guerrilla non-state terrorists. Langewiesche also recounts the recent history of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist at the forefront of nuclear development and trade in the Middle East who masterminded the theft and sale of centrifuge designs that helped to build Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, and who single-handedly peddled nuclear plans to North Korea, Iran, and other potentially hostile countries. He then examines in dramatic and tangible detail the chances for nuclear terrorism. From Hiroshima to the present day, Langewiesche describes a reality of urgent consequence to us all. This searing, provocative, and timely report is a triumph of investigative journalism, and a masterful laying out of the most critical political problem the world now faces.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Good but unfocused July 13, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Although an excellent writer (it seems that all of the contributors to Atlantic Monthly are), Mr. Langewiesche's focus in this book is not sharp and wanders a bit too much for my taste. It zigzags between giving excellent but very selective snapshots of a history of the nuclear arms race, and an overly detailed and spotty but also selective account of the threats of renegade nuclear bomb development among non-state actors. Although his investigative work with regards to Russia and its neighbors was interesting, in the end it revealed very little and made a muddle of what we already know. A sharper set of objectives may have helped sharpen his conclusions.
In the case of his fragmented snapshot of nuclear history, while his details of nuclear effects were simply superb, I believe that in his catalogue of tactics and strategies for acquiring nuclear bomb materials, he was remiss in not including, or even mentioning the methods Israel used to develop its nuclear capability and the role Israeli nuclear weapons more generally continue to play in the tensions in the Middle East.
Even being sympathetic to the threats to Israel's security, its role in the regional nuclear arms race is still important for at least four reasons. In the first instance, it is reputed that the fissile materials Israeli used to fuel its first bomb were stolen from U.S. stocks. If Israel can steal such materials, maybe other can do so as well. Second, arguably it was the development of the Israeli bomb that set off the regional nuclear arms race we are now witnessing today; and that it, as much as anything else, has resulted in the scuttling of the NPT Treaty.
Thirdly, the clandestine way Israel acquired its fissile materials, and the way it fabricated its weapons under the pretext of a need for more nuclear energy has indeed become THE template followed by other aspiring nuclear states. And finally, it is not just coincidental that the subtext of the Muslim and Arab rush to develop nuclear weapons, rest on the fact that the world turned a blind eye to Israel's nuclear developments and continues to remain in denial about its effect on the tensions underlying the Middle East's regional nuclear arms race.
The most threatening of the nuclear capable states that have emerged (outside of North Korea and South Africa (which developed its bomb with Israeli assistance)) are Muslims from the same dangerous neighborhood of the Middle East where Israeli nuclear weapons represent an existential threat, as well as an uncomfortable fail accompli to those in the region.
Anyone who has spent any time at all at the UN, as I have, or who has followed its debates on nuclear issues, knows that the issue of Israel's nuclear weapons has been the catalyst for a generation of nuclear angst in the region. Not to have mentioned Israel at all, strikes me as fatally unbalanced, and an unforgivable oversight. But three stars for the brilliant description of nuclear effects in the bombs detonated over Japan.
 What If. June 9, 2008
What if ...Iran covertly buys Enriched Uranium from North Korea?...then claims it produced it ..this is the very reason Israel has made contingency plans for a strike on the Known Nuclear sites...its really hard to believe that the World is not taking the Iranian threat seriously,during WW2 we had "Plausible" deniability that a Whole race of people were being savagely eradicated because nothing of that Magnitude had ever happened before at least not to that extent ..but here we have group of fanatical religous Mullahs controlling Iran ..Babbling Daily about wiping Israel off the Map and the World seems to be so de-sensitized about the plight of the Jews that is goes on without condemnation..if any other country was threatened this way ,there would be World wide outrage.
 A realistic view of nuclear proliferation January 27, 2008
This book examines two basic issues: the proliferation of nuclear weapons among countries and the possibility of terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. With regard to countries, the author makes the point that the technology of atomic weapons is now over 60 years old and there is no way to really stop a determined country from acquiring these weapons. Pakistan's nuclear program is used as an example. Prime Minister Bhutto (the father of Benazir Bhutto) said the Pakistani people would eat grass if necessary to get the bomb and indeed Pakistan proved unstoppable. On this subject the book includes a mini biography of AQ Khan, the so-called father of the Pakistani bomb and a discussion of institutional corruption in that country.
On the subject of terrorism, a persuasive case is made that government agencies working through bureaucratic channels are incompetent to stop a determined terrorist. Instances of waste and pointless expenditure are sited, like the financing a luxurious customs house for a foreign country in the middle of a wilderness where it can easily by bypassed by anyone so inclined. Nevertheless, the author explains that there are high natural barriers to stealing fissile material and making a bomb and this is why it has not happened. Even if many parts of the world are ungoverned and ungovernable it does not mean that local gangsters and drug smugglers do not know who is trying to move dangerous materials across their turf. These people who rule the street have no particular interest in helping strangers smuggle nuclear weapons. The author advocates that instead of dealing with government bureaucrats in national capitals, government agencies should forge ties to these individuals in order to enlist their help in watching for nuclear terrorists.
On the whole, this book is non-ideological and rooted in common sense. It presents a bleak picture of proliferation without being alarmist. It is a useful book for readers seeking a realistic view of nuclear proliferation.
Calm Down it's not as bad as Bush Says October 26, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The one thing that I got more than anything else from this book is that if and when there is the use of a nuclear device, it will be by a 'rouge' nation or some group operating at their behest. William Langewiesche (WL) makes a very strong point in explaining why it would be almost impossible for a group of terrorists to construct a bomb.
Stealing enough radioactive material to make a bomb would not be the end of the terrorists problem. It would have to be molded with very sophisticated equipment (no you couldn't do it with your bare hands even if you were stupid enough to try) that has to be run by people with specialized training and knowledge. Even though we've seen the choices by doctors in the UK to become terrorists, you need specialists from multiple fields to pull it off.
Both Qaddafi and Hussein tried to do it, and even with all of their petro dollars weren't able to pull it off. The only crazy so far is North Korea, and the one bomb they tried to set off, turned out to be a dud. This is very difficult material to work with, and the manufacturing process and protection that they entail is expensive and hard to steal.
On top of that you have to be able to keep it at certain levels of strength or it begins to deteriorate and become 'subcritical'.
So, even though W thinks that someone can build one of these in their backyard...they can't. Great book.
 Great cure for insomnia October 25, 2007
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you suffer from insomnia or have a hard time getting to sleep. Get this book. As you tuck yourself in and raise the book to eye level and start to read, within less than half a page your eyelids will be drooping and you will feel yourself getting very drowsy. If you can manage another half a blurry page you will be totally and completely sound asleep.
It's not that the subject matter is not compelling, it's the delivery: plodding, unfocused, and very, very cumbersome.
And I have read many, many weighty subject matters: State of War, Conspiracy of Fools, etc.
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