Fact or Fission?: the truth about Australia's nuclear ambitions

Description

An updated and authoritative account of Australia's involvement with nuclear power, including the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact. Based on previously classified files and interviews with some of Australia's prominent politicians and diplomats, the first edition of Fact or Fission? revealed that the nation's nuclear policies had a chequered history. We sold, and continue to sell, uranium abroad, but rejected plans to build nuclear reactors in Australia. We switched from wanting our own nuclear weapons during the Cold War to giving strong support for a sane international non-proliferation regime. But now the narrative needs updating. Since the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, an increasingly uncritical acceptance in Canberra of Washington's war-fighting policies - nuclear and conventional - has encouraged the very things that Australia once so vigorously and moralistically opposed. The latest step was taken at the end of 2021 with the announcement that the Navy will acquire nuclear-propelled submarines from either the UK or US. If the deal ever goes through, these submarines will likely be deployed as part of an American strategy to contain China. But if successive US administrations continue to vacillate in their policies towards their allies, or are unable or unwilling to defend us, Australian hawks may see arming the submarines with nuclear weapons as the only way Australia can defend itself against a resurgent China. Richard Broinowski concludes that Australia's foreign policy has become militarised, with key departments and militant think-tanks in Canberra calling the shots in pursuing an aggressive policy towards China. Such activities profoundly endanger Australia's own security. 'Drawing upon 'insider' knowledge as a former diplomat, Richard Broinowski has contributed to the discussion by placing AUKUS in its historical context in an updated edition of his book ... the updated iteration of Fact or Fission? takes its reader on a journey through Australia's nuclear policy history from the 1940s to today ... Broinowski demonstrates the stark differences between contemporary nuclear diplomacy and that which existed in 2003.' -Jessica Urwin, Australian Book Review

Richard Broinowski was a senior Australian diplomat who served in Japan, Myanmar, Iran, and the Philippines before becoming ambassador to Vietnam, the Republic of Korea, and Mexico. He was general manager of Radio Australia in the early 1990s, and on his retirement in 1997 became an adjunct professor, first at the University of Canberra, and then at the University of Sydney. In 2006, he initiated a program to send many student journalists in Australia to work in the newsroom of English-language newspapers throughout Asia. Since his retirement, Richard has published six books, two of which are on nuclear matters- two editions of Fact or Fission? (Scribe 2003 and 2022), and Fallout from Fukushima (Scribe 2012). He was president of the NSW chapter of the Australian Institute of International Affairs from 2015 to 2018. Richard became an Officer in the Order of Australia in the June 2019 honours list. He lives with his wife, Dr Alison Broinowski AM, in Sydney.