Nuclear Freeze Movement

Abstract

The nuclear freeze movement was an American campaign against nuclear weapons based around an ostensibly moderate demand with radical implications: a negotiated and bilateral end to the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons. Neither the freeze idea, nor opposition to the arms race more generally, was new in 1980 when the freeze emerged, amid resurgent allied anti‐nuclear weapons movements across Western Europe. Astute activist opportunism, in conjunction with a series of more aggressive foreign policies from the US government, aligned to produce unusually heightened attention to national security policy in general, and nuclear weapons in particular. In this regard, the nuclear freeze movement loudly echoed previous periods of mobilization and concern, including anti‐nuclear campaigns following the first use of weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945–1947), surrounding the long debate about a ban on testing (1954–1963), and in opposition to the deployment of anti‐ballistic missile systems in the US (1968–1973). Although some activists are constantly trying to draw public attention to the costs and dangers of nuclear weapons, they only succeed episodically. The cyclic mobilization against nuclear weapons reflects more vigorous institutional debates about nuclear weapons strategy.