Apocalyptic Crimes

Why Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal and Must Be Abolished

Ronald C. Kramer

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2025
• Print ISBN: 9781978839335, 9781978839342
• eBook ISBN: 9781978839359
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In 2023, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the iconic Doomsday Clock to ninety seconds to midnight—the closest to midnight, or civilization-ending apocalypse, it has ever been. Designed at the onset of the Cold War amid new fears of atomic weapons, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic countdown to annihilation. Now, a generation later, the world is more vulnerable than ever to the nuclear weapons it sought to warn against. In Apocalyptic Crimes, Ronald C. Kramer reconsiders the immense danger these weapons pose to humanity, examining the use, threat to use, and continued possession of nuclear weapons from a criminological perspective.
 
Kramer argues that any country holding on to its nuclear arsenal—including the United States—is committing a criminal act. Offering a sharp rebuke to the common claim that nuclear stockpiles serve to deter the escalation of conflict, Apocalyptic Crimes emphasizes the harm caused by the mere possession of these deadly weapons. It further considers the culpability of political officials, acting as representatives of the state, whose threatening statements about nuclear weapons contain actions or omissions that violate specific international laws. But Kramer also shows how a nuclear apocalypse might be averted and offers a pathway to disarmament. Through critical analysis and a specific criminology of nuclear weapons, Kramer outlines the political actions necessary to rewind the Doomsday Clock and pull the world back from the brink of destruction—before the clock strikes midnight.    
 
 

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Editors
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword: Nuclear Death by Raymond J. Michalowski
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• List of Abbreviations
• 1. “It Is 90 Seconds to Midnight”: Nuclear Weapons, Apocalyptic Harms, and State Crime
• 2. Nuclear Warfare Is Illegal: International Law and Nuclear Weapons
• 3. The Use of the Atomic Bomb against Japan and the Normalization of a Geopolitical Crime
• 4. Crimes of Empire: Cold War Nuclear Threats and the Failure of International Controls
• 5. Nuclear Madness, Arms Control Treaties, and the End of the Cold War
• 6. After the Cold War: Lost Opportunities for Disarmament, Nuclear Nonproliferation by Force, and the Prague Promise
• 7. Current Apocalyptic Threats, the American Empire, and a Pathway to the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Series Page