Nuclear Middle East (NUCLEAR-ME)

The project aims to confront the long-standing invisibility of the region from nuclear thought. The nuclear condition, in this project, is considered broadly, challenging the divide between weapons and energy, and considering multiple stages of the nuclear fuel cycle.

The project confronts disciplinary boundaries and scopes to account for more diverse perspective on the nuclear sphere. In doing so, it challenges hegemonic approaches to nuclear politics in the modern Middle East, which have emphasized fears of horizontal proliferation and have reproduced the assumption of nuclear desire as a point of departure.

The project considers nuclearization as a process that can take place beneath and beyond the state. It is guided by the following three questions, which are interrelated:
-    How has the Middle East participated in, or contested, the global nuclear order? 
-    How has nuclear thought in the Middle East been informed by imaginations of the future, memories, nostalgia, and culture? 
-    Which concepts and frameworks have been developed by people in the Middle East to better understand the nuclear condition, beyond the widespread assumptions of nuclear desire and nuclear deterrence?

Vacant position: PhD student in Political Science: Nuclear Politics in the Middle East