a nuclear refrain Fig . 1. Hieronymus Bosch, Ship of Fools (1490–1500) Before you start to read this book, take this moment to think about making a dona- tion to punctum books, an independent non- profit press, @ https://punctumbooks.com/support/ If you’re reading the e-book, you can click on the image on the left to go directly to our donations site. Any amount, no matter the size, is appreciated and will help us to keep our ship of fools afloat. Contributions from dedicated readers will also help us to keep our commons open and to cultivate new work that can’t find a welcoming port elsewhere. Our adventure is not possible without your support. Vive la Open Access. A Nuclear Refrain: Emotion, Empire, and the Dem- ocratic Potential of Protest. Copyright © 2019 by Kye Askins, Phil Johnstone, and Kelvin Mason. This work carries a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license, which means that you are free to copy and redis- tribute the material in any medium or format, and you may also remix, transform and build upon the material, as long as you clearly attribute the work to the authors (but not in a way that suggests the authors or punctum books endorses you and your work), you do not use this work for commercial gain in any form whatsoever, and that for any remixing and transformation, you distribute your rebuild under the same license. http://creativecom- mons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ First published in 2019 by punctum books, Earth, Milky Way. https://punctumbooks.com ISBN-13: 978-1-950192-61-8 (print) ISBN-13: 978-1-950192-62-5 (ePDF) doi: 10.21983/P3.0271.1.00 lccn: 2019954848 Library of Congress Cataloging Data is available from the Library of Congress Book Design: Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei A Nuclear Refrain Emotion, Empire, and the Democratic Potential of Protest Kye Askins Phil Johnstone Kelvin Mason Contents Foreword · 13 stave one Democracy in Action · 17 stave two Ghosts of Nuclear Past · 27 stave three Ghosts of Nuclear Present · 47 stave four Ghosts of Nuclear Not To Come · 77 postscript Creative Resistance, Discomfiting Pedagogy · 101 addendum one Trident Replacement and Deterrence · 119 addendum two How To Fold a Paper Crane · 125 Bibliography · 129 xi Figures Fig. 1 (p. 44). Origami peace cranes on a kitchen table. Photo by Kelvin Mason. Fig. 2 (p. 74). Collage of protest at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), Burghfield, England, in 2016. Painting by Cat McNeil; red “ghost” figures by Kye Askins; montage by Kelvin Mason. Fig. 3 (p. 98). Peace camp at AWE, 16 June 2106. Photo by Zoe Broughton. Fig. 4 (p. 116). Police behind the wire at AWE, 16 June 2016. Photo by Andy Pilsbury. Fig. 5 (p. 127). How to fold a peace crane. Source: Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre. 13 Foreword A Nuclear Refrain is a piece of “spatial fic- tion” that challenges vital but neglected is- sues around the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction and the concomitant policy of nuclear deterrence. We issue this challenge via the extension of our geographical imagi- nations into the past, present, and future. The UK’s 2016 decision to replace its Vanguard submarine fleet, as a major step to- wards renewing its Trident nuclear weapons system, ignored a barrage of public protest. Whatever the other political issues in play, the lengthy process of Trident replacement will surely vex British and, indeed, global politics for generations. Political, economic, ethical, and military disagreements will rum- ble on and on, building to raging arguments 14 a nuclear refrain and further waves of public protest at key decision-making moments. In the story that follows, we consider nu- clear deterrence through three less familiar but revealing frames: • The emotional and embodied; • The yearning for lost empire and the workings of the British establishment; • The limits and potential of democracy. Although it is a rigorous critical analysis of deterrence, we present our consideration as a work of fiction, short-circuiting the usual academic structures and strictures on writing style and content. Our aim is to reach an audience beyond academia as well as within. We also wish to incite different ways of thinking about how we can “stage” scholarly interventions. Inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we transport a UK policy-maker in time and space to engage with arguments and emotions around how nuclear deterrence not only perpetu- ates an existential threat, but also limits our 15 foreword potential as individuals, relational groups, and democracies. Previewing publication, one reader commented that our story was “an uncomfortable hybrid between academia and fiction.” And that was exactly our inten- tion, because we believe that discomfort can be a vital spur to re-thinking persistent and intransigent issues like nuclear deterrence for academics, activists, policy-makers, and disengaged citizens alike. Thus, we wish to provoke debate about how nuclear deter- rence restricts the development of trusting and caring societies, both within and beyond national borders. We also hope that what fol- lows is a good read! 17 stave one Democracy in Action The Right Honourable Roger C. Bezeeneos 1 walked back along the corridor towards his office with a smile on his face. This morn- ing’s June committee meeting went well, he thought: the vote for Trident renewal next month was assured. As an elected member 1 Inspired by A Christmas Carol, we adopt Dickens’ writing strategy of placing “thematic concerns into the bodies and utterances of his characters,” and his playful approach and “joyous energy” (Michel Faber, “Spectral Pleasures,” The Guardian, December 24, 2005, https://www.theguardian. com/books/2005/dec/24/featuresreviews. guardianreview22). Roger C. Bezeeneos is an anagram of Ebenezer Scrooge, as we wanted to “ghost” Dickens’ morality tale through this spatial fiction, both in structures of writing and also by having some fun! 18 a nuclear refrain of the British House of Commons, serv- ing on the parliamentary Defence Select Committee, Roger favoured a multinational approach to nuclear disarmament, at least in the longer term. Roger was liberal with a small “l” and conservative with a small “c,” valuing personal freedom, political stability, and national security very highly. Indeed, he reflected with some pride, his moder- ate position and arguments had served to secure the middle ground today in a more heated debate than usual for a Defence Select Committee session. Roger had managed to smooth the concerns of some peers about the cost of replacing the Vanguard fleet of submarines. He’s allayed some of their other worries, too, at least for the moment. “Yes,” he’d admitted to Derek, a fellow mp always vocal at Committee meetings, “there are tensions between personal freedom, se- curity, and maintaining national and global social orders, but in a democracy one must look to majorities, norms, and so on. “That’s what my constituents elected me for,” he’d concluded. 19 stave one So, come July, he would be voting to begin the process of replacing the Trident weapons system. Indeed, he acknowledged to himself, this was very likely to be his position for the duration of his political career. He couldn’t foresee anything that would change his mind on this one. As he’d argued earnestly earlier, this was a terribly difficult decision to make, but he was absolutely convinced that the security of Britain depended upon it. And anyway, he comforted himself, the Trident test due on the 20th June, in a few days’ time, would be fine. Moreover, the resulting good publicity would alleviate public concern and smooth the lingering doubts that some of his fellow mps might have. 2 The test was strictly hush-hush of course. Roger was one of the few on the Select Committee to know about 2 The test failed, yet was not reported before the vote. See Rowena Mason & Anushka Asthana, “Theresa May Knew about Trident Failure before Renewal Vote,” The Guardian, January 23, 2017, https://www. theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/23/theresa- may-knew-about-trident-failure-before-renewal- vote.