French Nuclear Testing Research Articles

Customary Paths Toward Denuclearization and Decolonization: Mā‘ohi and Kanak Activists Passing Through lo Larzac

ABSTRACT Networks of opposition to French nuclear testing were nourished by transnational solidarities. By the end of the 1970s, links between Kanak and Mā‘ohi expanded through trans-Pacific organizations such as the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement. They also grew beyond the shores of Oceania with the active participation of Occitan activists from lo Larzac in southern France. This agricultural plateau, already home to a decade-long fight against militarization, became a transnational hub for anti-nuclear activists. In the early 1980s, a ‘Pape‘ete–Noumea–Larzac’ network emerged through lawyers Jean-Jacques de Félice and François Roux who brought their clients together in networks of solidarity. As brokers, they helped transform lo Larzac into a hub which linked anti-nuclear and anti-colonial struggles. This article examines the roots of rural resistance by focusing on how the links forged by transnational actors, including churches and non-violence groups, helped nourish an Oceania–Larzac activist network.

‘We will not Relax our Efforts’: The Anti-Nuclear Stance of Civil Society and Government in Post-Independence Fiji

ABSTRACT In the years immediately following independence, Fiji took advantage of its position as the first Pacific Island country in the United Nations to highlight the harms of French nuclear testing. Building on the outspoken efforts of Fijian civil society that reflected deep concerns in the region, the government of Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara took on an increasingly activist role in the international arena around the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific. Fiji’s advocacy over this time represented an important moment in Pacific Way politics, tying nuclear resistance to self-determination struggles. Anti-nuclear sentiment at both a community and political level positioned Pacific agency and perspectives in this global discourse. Revisiting the speeches and diplomatic efforts of the Fijian government alongside the advocacy and activities of the ATOM group offers lessons on the importance of collaborative politics in the face of transboundary harms and regional challenges.

On history and authority: the Cold War nuclear arms race and its importance for critical security theory

ABSTRACT Since the late 1990s, the critical study of security has crystallised into a professional field of study – Critical Security Studies (CSS) – complete with theoretical schools, journals, and disciplinary narratives that recount its birth and development. The establishment of CSS as a separate field of inquiry distinct from conventional approaches to security is a remarkable achievement but has also come at a price. We argue that this is especially apparent in relation to the limited role Cold War history plays in CSS. Disciplinary narratives of the field tend to conflate the Cold War period with conventional security theory or strategic studies, thus downplaying the originality and importance of critical perspectives articulated during this protracted conflict. Emphasising the deep entanglements of the Cold War nuclear arms race with questions of ecological contamination, democracy, race, and decolonisation, we argue that these intersections are worth revisiting as intellectual precursors and foundations for CSS. We briefly illustrate this argument by highlighting important challenges to conventional security thinking that were formulated at three interconnected sites during the early Cold War: the 1955 Bandung Conference, Pan-African resistance to French nuclear testing in Algeria, and African-American anti-nuclear activism.

Artist Collectives as the Origins of DDoS the Strano Network and Electronic Disturbance Theater

This article explores the role of artist collectives in the original innovation of distributed-denial-of-service attacks. While current scholarship references the artist collectives Strano Network and Electronic Disturbance Theater as separate case studies, this article explores these groups’ overlapping ambitions, passion, and community and the Anonymous Digital Coalition’s role in linking the two. The continuity of innovation by these collectives presents a distinct historical origin story from traditional early hacking culture. This article surveys two well-documented incidents: the targeting of French government websites by the Strano Network to protest French nuclear testing and the targeting of the Pentagon by EDT in solidarity with the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. These artist collectives and the online activist spaces they occupied deserve both recognition and potential criticism for their creative and ultimately costly innovations.

French Polynesia

French Polynesia Lorenz Gonschor (bio) One of the main issues facing French Polynesia during the review period was the continuing struggle for the recognition of and compensation for the nefarious effects of French nuclear testing. At the same time, harmful colonial policies have been ongoing, exemplified by arbitrary acts by the French judiciary to silence pro-independence politicians and media outlets. In terms of local politics, municipal elections took place and showed some cracks within President Edouard Fritch’s apparently stable super-majority, which might become more apparent in the next larger-scale elections. All of this, however, was overshadowed by the effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic, which severely impacted the country’s economy. Let us start with some ramifications of history. The years 2019 and 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook’s first voyage in the Pacific. More so than the 200th anniversary half a century ago, this anniversary was controversial throughout Oceania, as Cook has been one of the quintessential figures of Eurocentric history writing and the ensuing marginalization of Pacific Islanders from their own history. Unsurprisingly, Indigenous representatives and intellectuals heavily criticized not only the commemorations held by the New Zealand government in Aotearoa in October but also the celebration honoring the arrival of Cook in Matavai Bay in Mahina, which had been held with support from President Edouard Fritch’s pro-colonial government earlier in 2019 (ti, 11 April 2019). A more positive aspect of the commemorations, at least in Tahiti, was that Tupaia, the priest, political advisor, and navigator who shared some of his knowledge with Cook and voyaged aboard his ship to Aotearoa, was a much more centralized figure this time. It was also timely that in early 2019, two German scholars published a well-noted essay deciphering the map of the Pacific region that Tupaia had drafted while aboard Cook’s ship (Eckstein and Schwarz and 2019b). Indeed, building national historical narratives around Indigenous figures and thereby revising colonialist historiography is an important part of the decolonization process. In that sense, both Anja [End Page 192] Schwarz and Lars Eckstein’s scholarly article and a comic book by Māori artists about Tupaia were published in French translations in Tahiti (Eckstein and Schwarz 2019a; Meredith and Tait 2020), while the Tahitian Voyaging Society’s vessel, Faafaite, sailed to Aotearoa to celebrate Tupaia’s legacy (rnz, 19 Sept 2019). It was more recent colonial history, however, that most intensely agitated public sentiments during much of the review period. The earlier decision by the French and French Polynesia governments to set up a documentation and memory center for the French nuclear tests (which took place on the atolls of Moruroa and Fagataufa between 1966 and 1996) and to put together a team of researchers to write a history of nuclear testing and its consequences (tntv, 21 Oct 2018) started to be implemented during the review period. A former naval barracks on the harbor front of downtown Papeete was designated to house the center, and the property was ceded free of charge by Paris to the country government (ti, 7 May 2020). Meanwhile, it should be recalled that the victims of the nuclear tests are represented by three different rival associations. The oldest of them is Moruroa e Tatou, close to the Protestant Church, which was originally presided over by trade unionist and activist Roland Oldham. Oldham passed away in March 2019, at age sixty-nine, due to cancer. He was the last of the three historical leaders in the defense of nuclear test victims; the other two, John Doom and Bruno Barillot, had died in the preceding year (ti, 16 March 2019). In October, Moruroa e Tatou selected longtime trade unionist and politician Hiro Tefaarere as its new president (Polynésie Première, 17 Oct 2017). Next, there is Association 193 (named after the total number of nuclear test explosions), affiliated with the Catholic Church, which is led by Father Auguste Uebe-Carlson (who succeeded Jerry Gooding in December 2019, see tntv, 6 Dec 2019). Finally, there is Tamarii Moruroa, led by Yannick Lowgreen, which advocates compensation for irradiation victims but is not critical of the nuclear tests...

The Politics of Invisibility: Visualizing Legacies of Nuclear Imperialisms

Questions of visibility, witnessing, and agency are particularly pertinent to post-1945 US and French nuclear testing across Oceania. Images of enormous hovering atomic mushroom clouds have become familiar icons of this testing, while images of the effects of colonial–imperial occupation and ideology in the Pacific are rendered invisible within government-controlled imagery. Alternative forms of visualization are required to be able to (re)see the human experiences that remain central to contemporary Pacific militarization and the legacies of nuclear weapons testing. Images, be they from social media and online platforms, archives, or public exhibitions, have the political potential to make visible Indigenous experiences of nuclear testing and ongoing militarization. Here, our work expands the concept of transnational studies by centering Oceanic, archipelagic, and island thinking. This article explores how contemporary photographic imagery politicizes what has been rendered (in)visible through state-produced imagery, archiving practices, and US national park recognition.  Focusing on American-born Chinese visual artist Jane Chang Mi’s series (See Reverse Side.) (2017) and Marshallese photojournalist and filmmaker Leonard Leon’s (@pacific_aesthetics) series of Instagram posts (2019), we argue that their methods of image-making can enable alternative forms of socioethical witnessing and visibility of not only state-produced archival images but also of the Indigenous Pacific communities who are deeply affected by nuclear testing and ongoing militarization. Through close readings of their works, we question how photographic practices communicate the humanity of nuclear military conduct while bringing their viewers closer to the human experience of living in a highly militarized and nuclear context.

A Sea-Chase by Roger McDonald

Reviewed by: A Sea-Chase by Roger McDonald Jason Namey Lives drawn out to sea Roger McDonald. A Sea-Chase. North Sydney, NSW: Vintage Australia, 2017. 288 pp. A$32.99. ISBN 978-0-14378-698-6 A Sea-Chase, Roger McDonald's tenth novel, opens in late 1970s Australia on Judy, "a young teacher sobbing at her desk . . . after [her] rioting class fled for the day" (3). In the midst of this low point, though, something serendipitous happens: Ken Redlynch, a fellow teacher and acting inspector, walks in. While comforting her, he learns that she is the daughter of Elizabeth Darke, a famous geneticist and leading figure in Scientists Against Nuclear Testing (SANT). Politically minded himself, Ken takes an interest in Judy, and through him she gets introduced to a "skinny blue-eyed wildwood creature" (22) named Wes Bannister, who lives aboard Ken's boat, the Rattler. Wes and Ken are passionate sailors, and Judy, through her relationship with Wes and friendship with Ken, discovers her own love for "a breath of wind on a section of taut canvas" (56). Though the novel does not have much by way of traditional plot—characters drift together and apart, move to different cities and change careers, a winding structure that resembles the path a sailboat takes—the narrative revolves around two journeys that the Rattler embarks on and their disastrous ends. First, Ken, Wes, and a third crewman aim the ship for Queensland, leaving Judy behind. Out at sea, the nearly impossible occurs: the ship's rudder falls off. Fortunately, a coal carrier quickly rescues the crew, and the Rattler washes ashore, "electrics ruined, engine swamped, gear broken, but [without] obvious hull damage to be seen" (100). After repairing the boat, Wes and Ken get recruited by members of SANT, who persuade them to use the boat for political means. They decide the Rattler's next voyage should be a sail to Auckland, flying the SANT flag, to protest French nuclear testing scheduled to happen there. This time, Ken stays back so that Judy can take his place. Out at sea, the ship runs into a tropical depression that Wes cannot safely navigate without falling behind schedule. He attempts to push through the storm, against Judy's wishes, which requires that he navigate recklessly close to the land, even though "the precaution of standing well out to sea in gale conditions was the wisdom of the ages" (148). A swell crashes the boat onto the shore. Everyone miraculously survives without major injury, but Judy cannot forgive Wes for carelessly putting their lives at risk. Over the following few weeks, Wes tries to contact Judy, but she "answer[s] him with silence . . . frozen down into her brain stem, hollow where her heart was towards him" (154). Wes is exiled from the sailing community for his dangerous maneuver, and he takes up with the charismatic Bill Rathbone, "a shearer and helicopter deer-shooter who worked around the world" (169). Wes soon finds himself wanted by the law after roughing up a few unionists and disappears into the bush. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Wes, Judy is three months pregnant with their child, forcing her to [End Page 173] decide whether she can forgive him for what he did. The novel treats moral failures—such as Wes's—with great seriousness; however, career failures, which strike these characters repeatedly, only serve as temporary setbacks leading to something better. Judy stumbled into teaching by "sticking with a bunch of girls who did everything together when they left school" (4), but, when the novel opens, she wants out of her contract. Only after failing as a teacher does she take up with Wes, discover sailing, and gain direction in her life. As a teenager, Wes had been a thief until Ken took him in and taught him how to build and repair boats. Even Ken—everyone's savior—goes bankrupt when a teaching machine he invented fails to generate any interest from prospective buyers. Like the other characters, though, Ken swiftly changes directions and soon amasses a small fortune designing, and selling, waterproof sailing gear. Characters' willingness to move past setbacks results from their shared belief that a...

Waves of destruction: Nuclear imperialism and anti-nuclear protest in the indigenous literatures of the Pacific

ABSTRACTThis article explores the ways in which precolonial understandings of the Pacific as a cross-cultural space involving extensive interpelagic networks of trade and cultural exchange, notably elaborated in Tongan scholar Epeli Hauʻofa’s 1990s series of essays celebrating Oceania as a “sea of islands”, are evident in pan-Pacific indigenous protests against nuclear testing in the region. It explores indigenous literary and artistic condemnations of both French and US nuclear testing (which collectively spanned a 50-year period, 1946–96), touching on the work of a range of authors from Aotearoa New Zealand, Kanaky/New Caledonia and Tahiti/French Polynesia, before discussing a recent UK government-funded research project focused on the legacy of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands. The project involved Marshallese poet and environmental activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, and a range of her anti-nuclear poetry commissioned for the project (including “History Project”, “Monster” and “Anointed”) is analysed in the closing sections of this article.

The Limits of Influence: Australia and the Future of New Caledonia, 1975 to 1988

ABSTRACTFrom the late 1970s Australian governments (led in turn by Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke) expected New Caledonia to become independent. France responded with suspicion. From 1983, however, reformist governments in Australia and France took apparently converging views. But tensions rose because of unrest in New Caledonia and conflict over French nuclear testing. Australia’s limited capacity to influence developments waned further in 1986 when Jacques Chirac became French prime minister and countered the Kanak nationalist movement. Foreign Minister Bill Hayden favoured moderating Australia’s position, but the issue became moot in mid-1988 when the rival forces in New Caledonia agreed to the truce embodied in the Matignon Accords. The different approaches of the Fraser and Hawke governments reflected philosophical differences, the personal stance of key players, influences from their political movements, and the challenges of changing circumstances. Decades later, with a referendum due by November 2018, Australia’s approach is likely to be cautious.

Whitlam and Australia’s relations with France, 1972–75: conflict and cordiality

The conflict over French nuclear testing in the South Pacific has dominated discussion of Australia’s relations with France while Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister (December 1972 to November 1975). Nonetheless, other issues were also important. To an extent not previously appreciated, Whitlam took a very positive view of France, despite his opposition to French nuclear testing. He understood the implications for Australian interests of France’s leading role in Western Europe, notably with respect to trade access, and was attracted by French scientific and industrial expertise. He was open to possible French involvement in uranium enrichment in Australia, and to Australian participation in the French/European Airbus aviation project. The French government reciprocated Whitlam’s interest in closer engagement. His efforts to establish stronger relations with France (and Europe), though unsuccessful, provide a further example of his commitment to greater independence for Australia from its traditional allies and partners, the United States and Britain.

Deep-sea mining prospects in French Polynesia: Governance and the politics of time

This contribution aims at sharing the results of an interdisciplinary expert group review led by the Institute for Development Research and commissioned by the French Polynesian and French governments with the view of reviewing the current state of knowledge on DSM deposits in French Polynesia in order to evaluate the potential for establishing a DSM mining sector, and to make recommendations that could be used as guidelines for developing a policy framework if the exploration and exploitation of DSM resources were to go ahead. The paper focuses on the governance issue in a context of non-independent overseas territory and specifically of the French nuclear testing legacy. The distribution of legal competences between the French and French Polynesian governments is of course at stake but governance is also about inclusion, transparency; it is a matter of redressing asymmetries of information and power and alleviating moral and normative uncertainties. The time dimension of governance – the gaps between the various temporalities and timescapes underlying the DSM activities – will be particularly stressed.

Nuclear Migrants, Radical Protest, and the Transnational Movement against French Nuclear Testing in the 1960s: The 1967 Voyage of the <em>Trident</em>

This article explores the origins and early years of the Australian movement against the French nuclear testing program in the South Pacific, which ran from 1966 to 1996. In particular, it looks at the transnational frame of Australian activism by focusing on an early example of direct action, the Committee Against Atomic Testing (CAAT). Established in Sydney in 1964, CAAT was conceived as a vehicle for organising the Trident protest voyage that sailed from Sydney towards French Polynesia in 1967. Although the voyage only travelled as far as the Cook Islands, it is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, it illuminates the role of British and American migrants in radicalising the Sydney Left in the early to mid-1960s. Many of these, especially those from the United States, were self-described “nuclear migrants,” fleeing radioactive fallout, Cold War propaganda, and the excesses of materialism back home. Several were involved in CAAT, helping to radicalise its ideas and its place in broader, international trends of direct action and radical pacifism. Secondly, the campaign of the Trident and its evolution is illustrative of a broader trend of experimentation with radical protest in opposition to French nuclear testing that was garnering interest among many on the Left in Australia in the mid to late 1960s.

Shifting Interests: Whitlam, Britain and French Nuclear Tests in the South Pacific

This article focuses on the interaction between the Australian and British governments during the early 1970s over French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. It examines the considerations behind the Australian government's approach to Britain, and Britain's response to initiatives from Australia. Through the presentation of a case study demonstrating how Australia's Pacific interests and Britain's European concerns inevitably led to different perspectives, I argue that the policies of both countries were primarily determined by their consideration of regional geopolitical interests, rather than the lingering links of Empire.

Australian consumers' attitudes toward France a decade after nuclear testing: evidence of forgiveness

Abstract Surveys of Australian consumers before, during, and after French nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1995 show clear evidence of negative reaction of consumers to the testing with regards to their ratings of France and French products. Although beliefs about French products did not decline following the announcement of the planned testing, evaluative feelings, and behavioral orientation towards France, the French and French products did. However, by 2005 behavioral orientation to French products, as well as attitudes to France and the French had more than recovered. The components of attitudes to products and country‐people are examined in the context of theories of forgiveness to understand processes that could explain such a recovery. Implications for researchers and marketers in the increasingly frequent situations of international tensions are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Explosive Challenge: Diplomatic Triangles, the United Nations, and the Problem of French Nuclear Testing, 1959–1960

France's first nuclear tests in Algeria in 1960 occurred at a critical moment in the Cold War. The United States, Great Britain, and the USSR had suspended their tests in 1958 and had been holding test ban talks in Geneva. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan faced a vociferous anti-nuclear movement at home and wanted to foster East-West détente. The U.S. State Department wished to prevent Soviet propaganda in the Third World, including the newly independent African and Asian states that strongly opposed French testing. Nonetheless, both Britain and the United States adopted a sympathetic stance toward France in the run-up to the first test in February 1960. Macmillan hoped to move Britain into the European Economic Community and therefore wanted to avoid antagonizing France, whose support for British membership would be crucial. Macmillan also wanted France's backing for a four-power summit to try to achieve East-West détente. Similarly, the United States did not want to alienate France, a key member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Modeling country image effects through an international crisis

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and test a longitudinal country‐people image effect model involving a significant negative international incident between countries; study how such a model changes over time; and study the extent of image recovery in terms of how the offending country, people, and its products are perceived.Design/methodology/approachAustralian consumers were surveyed before, during, and a decade after the French nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1995. Model testing was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques.FindingsThe model was strongly supported in all three‐time points. During the crisis, negative feelings toward France/French rose and consumers' response to French products dropped. Country‐people competency has risen over country‐people character in explaining product evaluations. In the final period, the Australian views on country‐people character and product response had more than recovered. The country‐people character beliefs now play a significant role in influencing product evaluations after the crisis than before, while the impacts of country‐people competency on product evaluation and response have diminished dramatically. Product evaluation is fairly stable over time.Originality/valueStudies to date have focused on country image at a point in time in relatively stable environmental conditions. The proposed model is helpful in understanding the processes of country‐product image effects through the study of all attitude components and through differentiation of beliefs about country and people production‐related and non‐production related characteristics. The cross‐temporal validation of the model indicates its usefulness for general applicability in country image effects research.

Residual radionuclide concentrations and estimated radiation doses at the former French nuclear weapons test sites in Algeria

In order to assess the level of residual radioactivity and evaluate the radiological conditions at the former French nuclear testing sites of Reggane and Taourirt Tan Afella in the south of Algeria, the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the request of the government of Algeria, conducted a field mission to the sites in 1999. At these locations, France conducted a number of nuclear tests in the early 1960s. At the ground zero locality of the ‘‘Gerboise Blanche’’ atmospheric test (Reggane) and in the vicinity of a tunnel where radioactive lava was ejected during a poorly contained explosion (Taourirt Tan Afella), non-negligible levels of radioactive material could still be measured. Using the information collected and using realistic potential exposure scenarios, radiation doses to potential occupants and visitors to the sites were estimated.

Insecurity in oceania: An Australian perspective

During the Cold War security concerns in Oceania were predominantly state-centred, involving such issues as ‘strategic denial’ in relation to the USSR, French nuclear testing and the Kanak demand for independence in New Caledonia. In the post-cold war era ‘comprehensive security’ provides a useful framework for assessing security in Oceania. This framework covers various issues, including political and societal security (particularly failing states), economic security, environmental security and various new international agenda issues (such as organized crime, terrorism and health). ‘Enhanced regionalism’ has been an important response to these various challenges. Australia has assumed a leading role in the development of this response, and also led the international intervention in Solomon Islands in 2003. Stronger regional cooperation is likely to result from the Pacific Plan, although not to the extent sought by Australia. The response to insecurity in Oceania needs to focus on long-term development issues.

French Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific, or When France Makes Light of Its Duty to Remember

o, n 13 June 1995, when President Jacques Chirac announced a final round of a dozen nuclear tests [in French Polynesia], his irrevocable deci sion caused concern and dismay. Without bothering at all to first consult the Polynesian people, he committed an act of gratuitous violence against these people and their representatives, political parties, churches, labor unions, and nongovernmental organizations. It felt like a planned assas sination of this child—all the future generations carried by the mothers in their wombs, their pu fenua—by the new occupant of the Elysee [the French "White House"]. Of course, Chirac could always count on his constant "brother," the president of the territorial government, Gaston Flosse. His campaigns— spread by the media of the Hersant group and by Radio Overseas France in favor of the tests' harmlessness and of the 1,000 new jobs that the pro gram would generate—could not change the public opinion of the great majority, under the morally aggressive blow. Demonstrations, support from throughout the Pacific region, and the massive presence of international media accompanied the testimonies of those who had directly suffered from the explosions, whether atmospheric or underground. The riots in Papeete were only the logical outcome of an act of violence committed by two dignitaries, Jacques Chirac and Gaston Flosse. In looking elsewhere for the culprits, the police and courts failed in their mission. The nuclear criminals were successive presidents of the French Republic, from De Gaulle to Chirac, and not the Polynesians, who were more victims than culprits. They had also tarnished the image of France. Chirac decided then to end the tests once and for all in January 1996. The opponents of nuclear

In Quest of Dialogue on a "Hot" Subject

Since I began studying Kanaky New Caledonia and other French Pacific territories more than a decade ago, I have tried to do what I can to encourage more dialogue across the artificial barriers created by colonial languages in the Pacific, especially between speakers of English and French. Despite some networking by activists and institutions of various kinds, linguistic colonialism has often tended to divide inhabitants of Oceania into relatively separate Anglophone and Francophone circuits. Perhaps no other issue highlights this lingering problem better than nuclear testing. The US and British atomic tests ended in the early 1960s, but the French tests did not begin until 1966 and lasted thirty years, spanning the era of decolonization in the South Pacific. French nuclear testing aroused public protest across the region, and many critics saw it as another aspect of ongoing colonial rule in French Polynesia and Kanaky New Caledonia (which has strategic nickel resources), despite active independence movements in both territories. After a last round of tests in 1995-1996, France closed down its Centre d'Expérimentation du Pacifique, and, with the United States and Britain, signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty of 1985. Paris has also granted more autonomy to French Polynesia and New Caledonia and has tried to improve diplomatic relations, cultural exchanges, and economic aid and trade with other Pacific countries. Given some recent crises in Anglophone Pacific states, however, France has vowed not to "abandon" its territories to disorder, the way it claims that "Anglo-Saxon" colonizers have done. In early 2002, Jean-Marc Regnault, a historian at the University of French Polynesia, sent me an article that he had coauthored and had accepted for publication in French in the Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique. He asked if I knew of an English-language journal that would consider [End Page 336] publishing another version of it in translation. Because I was on the editorial board of The Contemporary Pacific, I brought the matter to the attention of my colleagues. They decided that since it had already been published but dealt with a contested subject, a revised version designed as a dialogue piece would be acceptable. My job would be to round up three or four qualified people who could comment on the essay and to persuade Regnault to respond to the commentaries. The topic was indeed still a "hot" one in the minds of many Pacific residents, despite the end of nuclear testing six years earlier. Indigenous victims of tests continue to claim compensation from the United States and Britain, and related issues such as US testing of anti-missiles, threats of nuclear waste dumping, strategic alliances with nuclear ship visits, and sovereignty movements in French and US territories remain important to many people. One major point of contention is whether the French tests (which were aboveground for the first eight years and then moved into shafts drilled into the Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls of the Tuamotus in French Polynesia) were or were not safe for the environment and the people living and working nearby. That issue, in fact, helps to shape the lines (and tones) of argument used in the dialogue. Regnault is a well-published author on contemporary Pacific history, mostly in French. He has specialized in the history and the institutions of the French Pacific territories, trying to highlight the role played by those territories in the region's perception of France and also the role that events in those territories have played in the evolution of French policy. In particular, he has written about French nuclear testing in the Pacific and done two studies of Pouvanaa a Oopa, the Tahitian nationalist, the most recent of which shows conclusively, based on declassified French documents, that Pouvanaa was framed by the French in 1958, when he was imprisoned for more than a decade. Regnault has also written on recent politics in French Polynesia, including an analysis of the dramatic overthrow of Gaston Flosse in the May...