Join the Nanovic Institute and the Transnational France research cluster for a fascinating lecture by Austin Cooper on French nuclear policy and discussions from 1959-1966.
Complicating historical narratives of national consensus on nuclear weapons policy, French civil society challenged President Charles de Gaulle’s pursuit of an independent nuclear arsenal. This domestic criticism grew on the non-Communist Left during the 1960s, shaping the partisan and electoral politics of the era.
This public lecture is open to all.
About the speaker
Austin Cooper is an assistant professor of history at Purdue University. His research focuses on the areas of contemporary international history and the history of science and technology. He is a historian of international politics since 1945 with an emphasis on nuclear technologies. His forthcoming book project, Saharan Fallout: French Explosions in Algeria and Nuclear Weapons in the Global Cold War, will focus on France becoming a nuclear state in the 1960s. Cooper received his Ph.D. in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania before completing postdoctoral fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.